Mathematics matters more than ever before, to individuals and to societies. As this book shows, higher level mathematical qualifications are in demand across industry and commerce. Yet, in the United Kingdom, the amount of mathematics studied by 15- and 16-year-olds has actually fallen. The authors of this book bring together evidence on the importance of mathematics in the labour market, the growing disparity between school mathematics and the demands of higher education, and the disjunction between the British mathematics curriculum (including recent highly touted reforms) and those of all our major competitors. They also argue for the importance of mathematics as the focus of policy-makers' attention, and explain what this means for effective teaching and learning, pointing the way to necessary reforms.