numeracy
(ˈnjuːmərəsɪ)
[f. numerate a., after literacy.]
The quality or state of being numerate; ability with or knowledge of numbers.
| 1959 15 to 18: Rep. Cent. Advisory Council for Educ. (Eng.) (Ministry of Educ.) I. xxv. 270 When we say that a scientist is ‘illiterate’, we mean that he is not well enough read to be able to communicate effectively with those who have had a literary education. When we say that a historian or a linguist is ‘innumerate’ we mean that he cannot even begin to understand what scientists and mathematicians are talking about... It is perhaps possible to distinguish two different aspects of numeracy that should concern the Sixth Former. 1960 English XIII. 44 A certain lack of ‘numeracy’ on the part of those trained in the Arts can make them a little purblind to the implications of figures such as these. 1960 Rep. Proc. Conf. Univ. U.K. 23 If scientific barbarians are to be given a veneer of literacy, and literary barbarians a veneer of numeracy, I suggest the proper apparatus for it is a lot of deep armchairs in an open access library. 1966 Economist 22 Jan. 310/2 The need for numeracy today is enormous. Business requires..people who..have grasped the principles of reducing a chaos of information to some kind of order. 1970 Sci. Jrnl. Feb. 73/2 The scientist does, however, possess the advantage of numeracy and can usually acquire quite easily the statistical and theoretical background to modern management techniques. 1972 Daily Tel. 22 Jan. 2/5 The plan must be welcomed for introducing pre-school children to reading, writing and numeracy. |
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▸ numeracy hour n. (also with capital initials) Brit. Educ. (in primary schools) a daily numeracy lesson, made part of the national curriculum in 1999; cf. literacy hour n. at literacy n.
| 1997 Observer 8 June 1/6 Labour will encourage schools to introduce the literacy and *numeracy hours as soon as possible in order to meet ambitious targets for the end of its first term in government. 2005 Times Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 14 Jan. 32 Only in innumerate Britain could a numeracy hour last as little as 45 minutes. |