I still remember the moment I was 15 and perplexed once again by the sea of numbers my maths teacher had busily scribbled on the blackboard. His assessment couldn’t have been blunter. ‘I’m afraid you’ve got no chance of passing your maths O-level next year,’ he said. A year later, his prediction came to pass. I took my O-level twice more after that, but still failed. My solution? Avoiding numbers at all costs. But finally, maybe, help is finally at hand, thanks to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, who think they can help unlock my maths potential. Having studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford and served as Chancellor before becoming PM, whatever your political views, there’s no doubting Rishi knows his way around numbers.
It feels surreal to say the least that they’re sitting in my small London terrace, sparkling after a frenzied spring-clean before their arrival. Rishi sits opposite me, elbows on table, drinking Yorkshire tea from a mug my son brought back from a school science trip (covered, suitably enough, in scary-looking equations). He nods sympathetically when I tell him my tale of maths woe. ‘You know, your story is exactly what we hear. It’s sadly typical to feel that you’re not a numbers person, even though you probably are – much more than you realise.’
Akshata sits next to me dressed in buttercup yellow, listening intently. ‘You know what?’ she says. ‘That is not how anyone should feel. You’re a capable person and you should have a chance to try everything out. I feel strongly about this. I think what comes first has to be the recognition that you’re not alone, right?’
Which is why the Sunaks have set up a charity, The Richmond Project, launched last year to spread the word to people like me that numeracy isn’t innate – it’s a skill that can be developed at any age. ‘Our whole focus is how can we make sure that, whether you’re five, 55 or 95 years old, numbers feel accessible’, says Akshata.
Rishi chips in: ‘This isn’t about complex algebra or doing it for A-level. It’s everything from your weekly shop and looking after your household budget to helping your kids with their homework. It’s much more about trying to change the culture.’
One educational initiative they’ve launched is Books Count, delivering number-themed books to primary schools across the UK. In January, the charity released the findings from its first survey, Number Nation. More than 10,000 people took part and the results pinpointed maths anxiety among young girls as a particular issue. While 51% of boys aged four to eight found maths ‘easy’, only 41% of girls felt the same way. Girls’ confidence was found to dip significantly during A-levels, despite their high attainment.
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Akshata views this area of gender and parenting as crucial if we want to create real change. ‘I think there’s a hidden anxiety our children pick up on, especially between girls and mothers, that can pass from one generation to the other,’ she says. It’s the teenage years that really count, she believes.
The Sunaks have two daughters: Krishna is nearly 15 and Anoushka is 18 months younger. ‘This is the age where they’re looking to you, reading all your subtle emotional cues.’
I’m hopeful that my daughter hasn’t absorbed my own fear of maths, but how can I be sure that her confidence won’t dip by A-level, as the survey stats suggest? Connection, Akshata says, is key. Forget nagging them to do their homework – try instead to engage in their world. ‘So, my eldest loves cooking. I’m not a great cook, but this is how I’ve learned to involve her. We double recipe ingredients, talk about the measurements and I figure out how numbers play an important role in something that she enjoys.’
So I shouldn’t worry about trying to help my youngest with her homework?
‘Why not flip that around and ask her to show you how to work out a maths problem?’ suggests Rishi. ‘It’s a shared activity, where she’s explaining and you’re learning from her.’
I get the impression Rishi is a bigger fan of playing games than helping with homework. ‘I do the Wordle along with Spelling Bee and I’ll play those with my daughters [his favourite Wordle starter word is SOARE; his daughter’s is LATER], but now I’ve started doing number puzzles like Sudoku with them, too. So that’s one thing you can try together that starts to use that muscle.’
They’re also big fans of the card game Uno. ‘We’ve played that with the girls from a young age, pointing out the patterns and numbers.’ Monopoly takes first place as family favourite and he’s clearly thrilled with the Sunak-themed version that a close friend gave them as a gift. ‘I couldn’t recommend it more.’
I may be a bit late for Uno or Monopoly, so what sort of approach would they recommend to develop my own maths muscle?
‘You should say to yourself, “Look, I’m not going to talk about the anxiety but focus on the subtle ways I already use numbers and build on that,”’ says Rishi.
I tell them I take a natural interest in what’s happening to interest rates and inflation, and how economic trends impact my savings – although I still depend on AI to work out the answers.
‘That’s okay,’ says Akshata. ‘In terms of finance, you’re already starting to figure it out. You think you’re not a numbers person, but you are – you’re asking questions and trying to problem solve.’
My challenge, they say, is to work on that area but spend an extra minute trying to calculate answers myself, e.g. what’s the sum involved in working out how a new interest rate impacts my mortgage payment? ‘If you think it through yourself, you harness something already in you,’ she adds.
Rishi doesn’t have that much time for Monopoly since stepping down as Prime Minister two years ago. He’s still a Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton, as well as taking on tech advisory roles with Microsoft and Anthropic. Do his daughters share his enthusiasm for maths and tech?
‘Well, they love history and writing,’ admits Rishi. ‘But they don’t have any anxiety around maths and that’s what matters.’
Both Rishi and Akshata are aware how lucky they were to grow up in families where maths was embedded in their upbringing. Rishi’s father studied medicine at the University of Liverpool and worked as a GP, while his mother was a pharmacist. ‘The thing that really unlocked it for me was working for my mum in the pharmacy,’ he says. ‘In those days, I was measuring medication out – 28 or 14 tablets – and I ended up doing the accounts, too. That for me really resonated.’ His face lights up at the memory. His love of maths is evident, although he tells me his mental arithmetic has never been a strong point. ‘I’m not brilliant at it. I always prefer to write things down. I find it much harder to do it in my head.’
Akshata, meanwhile, is more of a human calculator when it comes to adding and multiplying. ‘My mother would test me on my times tables while brushing my hair each night.’ Both her parents were engineers. Her mother, Sudha, worked for one of India’s biggest car companies, while her father, Narayana, co-founded the IT giant Infosys. ‘My approach to maths is down to my mother,’ says Akshata. ‘She’s a wonderful storyteller who brought learning to life, and in that process I was exposed to maths. Her creativity made it accessible.’
Which brings us back to the importance of maths confidence in older women. A key finding in a recent GH survey was that less than half of Gen X women were confident making financial decisions. ‘Numbers very quickly are about money,’ says Rishi, ‘which is where less stress around maths means more control in your life.’ This is a powerful connection for me and personal finance is definitely where I’ll be trying to develop financial numeracy.
Rishi finishes his tea and it’s time to leave – but not before they go head-to-head on a few quickfire sums. Akshata quickly streaks ahead. ‘So, what’s 12 x 18?’ I ask; 216 is her lightning response.
They’re clearly genuinely excited about their new mission and I feel inspired to take more control of my finances. I may even crack equations, once my 15-year-old gives me a lesson.
From maths phobia to maths euphoria in Rishi and Akshata’s five easy steps
■ Stop saying, ‘I’m not a numbers person.’
■ Language is crucial. The way you describe yourself shapes your confidence and how others, including your children, see you. Don’t view maths as an identity, more a skill you can build.
■ Add numbers to your daily puzzles.
■ We all love Wordle, but flex your maths muscle by adding in numbers, too. Try Sudoku or the increasingly popular Codeword puzzles that use digits as well as letters in the clues.
■ Don’t rely on a calculator.
Online calculators on our laptops and phones make us even more maths avoidant. Try adding up a bill before it arrives, sense-check your bank statement, work out a discount in a shop. Estimation is key to developing a feel for numbers and you’ll often be surprised how close you are.
To find out more about The Richmond Project, visit richmondproject.org
