Our method is to make services that work simply to raise standards in maths, regardless of the classroom environment, the student's year group or the prevailing new vs. old maths agenda.

Last year's OFSTED results didn't paint a rosy picture of primary education in the UK. The UK still lags behind many other wealthy nations in basic literacy and numeracy, despite the efforts of various education ministers of the last few years. Many parents have turned to home education and private tuition for their children as a result of uncertain policy-making and decreasing trust in the state system.

The loss of trust that the state sector has suffered doesn't necessarily have a strong factual foundation, but the perception exists that children's literacy and numeracy aren't being adequately served by the state sector and that parents must turn to other means to help their children compete in an international jobs marketplace.
A number of specialist tutoring companies have sprung up to service this need. There is the venerable Kumon maths, whose test-based methods and rigorous classroom sessions have somewhat mixed appeal for students, but a good reputation nevertheless. Some newer companies, like TutorVista, have taken the human-tutor approach online, with live webcam, internet phone, or instant messaging input from qualified staff. The third, and possibly most interesting, approach takes the principles of one-to-one education and personalised learning and offers entirely automated services at lower cost, and in engrossing environments for students. Maths-Whizz, founded in late 2003, and its more recent US competitor, Dreambox, are two examples of this.

Maths-Whizz, TutorVista, and Kumon all tap into the need to give a child a grounding in the fundamentals of maths, better to prepare her for life, let alone a life in the sciences, finance, or analytical work. Numeracy and literacy issues are somewhat fraught in the UK and US, and discussions about curricula have tended to focus on whether a particular approach gives a child that basic grounding in the subject. In the UK, these discussions have been binary - either the government is doing a good job, or a poor one; either you stay in the state taught-and-tested system, or you opt out with private or home education.

The same debates have taken on a slightly different form in the US, where the lack of a single national curriculum, more open school purchasing procedures and proactive parent networks have given rise to shrill arguments about 'old' vs. 'new' maths, and alphabet-based literacy vs. phonics. Discussions in the US tend to hinge on the teaching methods rather than the content, and you would be forgiven for thinking that the protagonists in these discussions are arguing life-or-death problems.

It is sometimes forgotten that the key aim of any education is to improve knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence in the subject. Some methods boost knowledge at the expense of comprehension, whilst others reinforce confidence, neglecting key facts. It surely isn't too glib to say that the ultimate aim should be to make a child a better reader, writer, and mathematician, in every way that she might benefit from those skills. This is the holy grail of any new teaching or tutoring technology but precious few programs can be evaluated on those terms, which is why some of these debates are so heated. Arguments have been based on values and intuition, rather than clear evidence.

It's likely that the new technologies that come to dominate the market won't be those with new or gimmicky styles that claim to revolutionise teaching. There's nothing magical about the basics of maths or reading. The tutoring services of the future will be those that facilitate communication between teachers, parents and students - the best technology is often the one that you only notice by its absence.

Developers and publishers have been stepping up to the plate, and this year's BETT show at London Olympia will have shown just how much progress has been made in this respect. One such, Whizz Education (the company behind Maths-Whizz), has sought to teach children without them realising they are being taught.
Maths-Whizz, which first appeared at BETT in 2006, returns this year with the latest generation of its animated maths teaching tools. The company's method is to make services that work simply to raise standards in maths, regardless of the classroom environment, the student's year group or the prevailing new vs. old maths agenda. For this, Maths-Whizz won a BETT award in 2006 and has since been adopted in domestic and schools markets as diverse as Mumbai, Seattle and Tunbridge Wells. The company has further boosted its credentials with two BETT award nominations this year.

Raising standards in clear, quantifiable ways is key to their approach, according to Whizz CEO Richard Marett. His company's efforts may go some way towards mitigating the acrimonious debates over state maths education and new curriculum directions. According to Marett, Maths-Whizz has won rave reviews from advocates both for 'new' (or 'discovery') maths, and 'traditional' maths, alike.

Maths-Whizz product manager Natalie Stakol points out that their tutoring service is designed to address core deficiencies for any primary-age child, irrespective of curriculum or learning environment. She hopes the company's tutoring service will ultimately help improve the sometimes tense relationships between parents, teachers and students. Maths-Whizz would become not simply a means of improving numeracy, but also of strengthening bonds between these three groups:
"Teachers assign our service to students, who get automated one-to-one attention wherever they sign in. Parents see their children using Maths-Whizz after school and on holidays and are better armed to discuss the subject at parents' evenings; and teachers get live feedback on student progress that they can share with students or parents. The system is democratic and open."

Whizz Education and its burgeoning group of competitors will be pinning their hopes on 2010 being a banner year for online education, when e-learning becomes a seamless part of student life, and technology is employed not simply because it is new or exciting, but because it works. Future Ministers of Education, whatever the political affiliation, will surely applaud.

www.whizz.com