Parents who say 'I can't do maths' are harming pupils minister warns Parents who say "I can't do maths" are harming their children and Britain's long-term economic prospects, the schools minister warned yesterday. Elizabeth Truss said that a damaging "anti-maths culture" must be reversed to stop the country and our students slipping further and further behind international rivals. She condemned adults who "chuckle at their own ineptitude" at basic arithmetic, claiming they are giving their children a "dangerous" message that maths is unimportant. Miss Truss told the Daily Mail that Britain's record was the worst in the developed world, with only a fifth of children taking maths beyond GCSE level. She set out plans for 200,000 more students a year to continue with the subject after the age of 16. They will be expected to take a new maths exam, nicknamed the "M-level," which is designed to improve the UK's record. Already, the Government has made it compulsory for young people who have failed to achieve a C or better in their GCSE maths to continue to study the subject until they reach this level. Miss Truss's reform is especially aimed at those young people who managed a B or C in their GCSE, most of whom then drop the subject. The new qualification will be available from September 2015. "England has a long-term anti-maths culture," she said. "It has been acceptable to say, "I can't do maths." We must resolve to get better at maths. That starts with all of us, parents especially, never saying - not once - in front of our children that we are bad at the subject. "Counting change at a shop till, or staring at a bank statement or a tax return, out slips that casual admission, "Oh, I was always rubbish at maths." If children see parents disowning maths, chuckling at our own ineptitude, they receive a pretty clear signal that maths is not important. That is a dangerous message. Miss Truss added: "Unless we change we will suffer economic decline. That's why I want to see the overwhelming majority of young people studying maths to age 18 by 2020. We lag behind our competitors internationally. The M-level will be drawn up using the work of Cambridge mathematician Sir Tim Gowers, and will be designed to prepare students for university, work and life. It will cover applied maths, including statistics, advanced calculation and modelling. The Department for Education's advice for exam boards on the design of the new qualification, published today, says it should be distinct from A-level and AS-level. Zero-tolerance policies on school discipline risk stifling the creativity pupils need to become successful entrepreneurs. Teachers should be patient with children who challenge them and give them leeway to break rules, said Yona Rubinstein from the London School of Economics. Professor Rubinstein looked at data on 12,000 Americans aged between 15 to 22 in 1979. In 1980 they were asked if they had ever been involved in illicit activities including gambling, shoplifting and assault. The analysis found entrepreneurs had an "illicit activity score" three times greater than other salaried workers.