'Make maths fun' is the new mantra of the Department for Education. The government has come up with many new and sometimes bizarre goals for the nation's teachers, but this could be its crowning glory.

I can just imagine primary school teachers around the country groaning in dismay as they heard David Blunkett on the Today programme struggling with his nine times table, the spoonful of cereal souring before it reached their mouths as he giggled and floundered, trying desperately to work out the answer to 12 times nine.

As his aides manically scrambled for the calculator and Mr Blunkett manfully held Sue MacGregor at bay whilst frantically counting on his fingers, the breakfasting teachers must have despaired.

Let's face it, maths is not fun. Embarrassed laughter sums up most of our reactions to the unexpected advent of mathematical problems, and Mr Blunkett, it seems, is no different.

Abhorrent

How many of us look forward to working out our tax, the effect of no Miras on our mortgage or even the daily shopping bill?

We may be able to do so, thanks to the efforts of our teachers and parents in the past, but its hardly something that many of us attack with relish.

And why is this? Is it really because maths was not presented to us as an enjoyable and interesting subject at school? Or is it in fact because there is something that is inherently abhorrent in the nature of the mathematical problem?

I for one loved maths at primary school, usually the lessons that involved building blocks and sand. But this lego-learning approach can be limited in the extreme.

No sooner has a child been lured into thinking that maths is fun, a leisure-filled activity with stickle bricks and sand, than wham! The bricks tumble, the sand is removed and the shadow of quadratic equations looms low over the classroom. The incentive that they can be worked out on pretty green-coloured graph paper just doesn't have the same pull.

Strain in staff rooms

So how can teachers improve this wasteland of sandless, brickless maths? Most primary school classrooms are already a rainbow of colourful wall displays, interactive materials and innovative seating arrangements.

I don't think an imperative statement that maths should be fun, a horseshoe seating arrangement, and a couple more teacher training days, are really going to affect the true nature of the sum.

Add to this the fact that there are very few maths specialists teaching in our primary schools, and you compound the problem.

Primary school teachers have already been asked to focus intensively on language with the literacy hour, a task which demanded much training and commitment, especially from those who are not specialists in English.

Now they are being asked to re-think the whole way in which they teach another core subject. Without proper resourcing, this is bound to cause further strain, worry and tension in school staffrooms.

Instead of simply demanding that maths must be fun, perhaps the government should look to recruit more maths specialists into the classroom, then pay them well enough to make them want to stay there.

It takes all sorts to make an education system. This is our space for those involved to sit back and reflect on how it is going from their corner of the world.