Learning basic maths and reading pre-school can set up children as academic achievers later in life, despite other circumstances and any behavioural issues.

This is the finding of a 2007 study of existing data from more than 35,000 preschoolers in the US, Canada and the UK.

The study controlled for IQ, family income, gender, temperament, type of previous educational experience, and whether children came from single or two parent families.

Northwestern University researcher Greg Duncan said “We find the single most important factor in predicting later academic achievement is that children begin school with a mastery of early math and literacy concepts,” he said.

Maths plays significant role in academic achievement

However, the relevance of maths knowledge was particularly revealing.

“The paramount importance of early math skills – of beginning school with a knowledge of numbers, number order and other rudimentary math concepts – is one of the puzzles coming out of the study.

“Mastery of early math skills predicts not only future math achievement, it also predicts future reading achievement,” Duncan said. “And it does so just as reliably as early literacy mastery of vocabulary, letters and phonetics predicts later reading success.”

The study found the reverse was not true – early reading ability does not forecast strong maths skills.

Using six longitudinal studies, the authors of “School Readiness and Later Achievement” measured school readiness skills and behaviors when a child entered school (at around age 5) and measured for later academic achievement between ages 7 and 14.

NAPLAN results in 2022 show maths dip in year 5, spelling decline in year 9

Last year’s NAPLAN results revealed reading skills among year 9 boys across Australia was a concern. The tests showed 13.5 per cent did not meet the minimum reading standard.

David de Carvalho, chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority told the Sydney Morning Herald in October 2022, “Average scores since 2008 [show] results are stable or progressing, except for year 9 spelling where increases in the early years of NAPLAN are reversing.”

He said there had been a drop too in year 5 maths and results of this cohort’s performance in years 7 and 9 will be telling.

Glenn Fahey, director of education policy at the Centre for Independent Studies agreed.

“If it becomes part of a longer-term trend that would indicate significant evidence of declining numeracy and quantitative skills, but it is too early to tell,” he said.