Petition · past parliament

DfE: add a clear definition of Order of Operations to National Curriculum.

Closed 130 signatures

What the petition asks

Current National Curriculum does not provide information on what Order of Operations should be in maths. Most students and teachers use BODMAS to remember the sequence but, unfortunately, some of them understand the order too literally and therefore are not able to complete simple maths sentences.
A lot of study resources omit ( or do not detail enough) the fact that Division and Multiplication, as well as Addition and Subtraction, are equally ranked and have to be completed left-to-right. Many students, and unfortunately, some teachers, understand the order too literally, calculating Addition before Subtraction getting wrong answers for simple maths sentences.
We are worried about future of our kids, who will have to pass their exams to get into higher education.

Timeline

21 Nov 2018 Petition opened for signatures
21 May 2019 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 130
Status Closed
Opened 21 Nov 2018
Closed 21 May 2019

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.