Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers from China who will teach in Maths Hubs in England will be selected; and if she will make a statement.

The government is committed to raising standards in mathematics to reflect the best practice in the world. The mathematics teacher exchange between England and China has been in place for two years to support this aim. The exchange is facilitated by our 35 Maths Hubs – school-led centres of excellence in the teaching of mathematics with a role to drive the transformation of mathematics teaching in England. Maths Hubs select teachers to take part in the exchange. Over the past 2 years, the hubs have arranged for 127 teachers from Shanghai to teach in English schools for 3 weeks, and 131 teachers from England to observe teaching practice in Shanghai.

The exchange has proved to be an overwhelming success. The network of Maths Hubs is establishing effective mathematics teaching for ‘mastery’ approaches from south-east Asian countries including China and Singapore.

Enhancing pupils’ attainment in mathematics by embedding mastery teaching will raise our standards to match those in the highest performing jurisdictions in the world and challenge pupils to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market.

This work has been supported by the use of high quality adapted versions of Singapore textbooks both to aid pupils’ understanding and to support teachers’ planning and professional development and 140 Primary Mathematics Teaching for Mastery Experts who will complete their training next month.