Primary school head teachers have criticised what they say is the "totally inadequate" number of books available to meet new government targets for raising standards in maths.

According to a survey on maths books, heads said they had as little as a quarter of the books they needed.

The survey by the Educational Publishers Council (EPC) found that in the last academic year, three quarters of primary schools spent less than £1,000 on maths books.

It also showed that 61% spent less than £500, and nearly 4% spent nothing at all.

In one school in Bradford, less than 56p was available per child.

A separate report by the EPC suggested that the smallest junior schools should each be spending more than £2,000 on maths books a year, and the largest schools more than £6,000, to be able to implement the government's national numeracy strategy.

Maths Year 2000

The results of the survey were revealed on Tuesday as the government launched Maths Year 2000, which is designed to support the strategy and promote greater interest in maths.

At the launch of Maths Year 2000, the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, announced that primary schools in England will receive an extra £9m to support maths, bringing the total to be spent on supporting the second year of the national numeracy strategy to £64m.

He said that from April, primary schools would receive an average of £1,000 each which they could spend on maths equipment such as number lines, digit cards, dice or number games and puzzles.

Some of the money would also be spent on maths consultants and leading maths teachers to support schools, and intensive maths training for teachers.

But some head teachers say this is still not enough.

The School Book Alliance - a pressure group of parents, teachers and educational bodies - is calling for more money.

"This government has already put a lot of funding into educational resources and we are grateful for that," said Martin Roberts, a headteacher and a leading member of the alliance.

"The fact remains, however, that the government has not thought through the resource implications of this important initiative to raise standards and teachers are clearly worried."

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, launched Maths Year 2000 with the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, and maths personalities Carol Vorderman and Johnny Ball - who has a new show, Tales of Maths and Legends, designed to bring the subject alive.

It is hoped that the intitative will persuade youngsters and adults not only that maths is important but can also be fun.

Fantasy football

One of the schemes included in Maths Year 2000 is a fantasy football league for schools. It is aimed in particular at capturing the imagination of boys, who are underperformers in maths at GCSE compared with girls, although teachers say girls are just as likely to be interested.

The fantasy league is running in 275 schools this season, but has prompted criticism from at least one teachers' union because children have to pay £3.50 each to take part. The league is run by Fantasy League Ltd.

Currently top on the average of pupils' and classes' fictional teams is St Thomas More High School in South Shields.

"It has definitely kindled some imagination and enthusiasm amongst the students," said maths teacher Dave Watson, who is in charge of the scheme within the school.

Staff are now producing numeracy worksheets - for example, related to the cost and performance of players.

"They are activities that we would normally be doing with the students in other forms, it is just maybe getting their imagination and their attention a bit more."

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) welcomed the scheme but said the education secretary deserved a red card over the cost to pupils.

"Pupils should not have to foot the bill for an educational initiative," said the association's deputy general secretary, Jean Gemmell.

"It flies in the face of the principle of free education.

"If football clubs can afford to pay players and managers huge salaries, perhaps they should foot the bill for any administration costs. After all, they will benefit from the publicity and increased interest in their performance."

Rivalry

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education stressed that Fantasy League Ltd made no profit from running the scheme, and said a small percentage of the £3.50 charge went to the Barnardo's children's charity.

Maths teacher Dave Watson does not think the cost is inappropriate.

"It does promote a bit of healthy rivalry and there is a serious maths side to it. A lot of kids have got involved, they're enjoying it, it's a bit of fun, and there is a fair bit of administration involved in it," he said.

"I thought the £3.50 would put students off but in fact it hasn't and I don't know of any students who maybe would have wanted to take part who didn't because of that."

Another factor is that students can see themselves outperforming the maths teachers - the so-called experts. His own team is in the bottom 10 in the school.

"Not testing the top," he conceded. "But it's the taking part that counts."

There are six bi-monthly themes for Maths Year 2000, starting with time, and a series of 'mathfests' in different parts of England - the first, in Oxford on Saturday, featured a magician and a Mad Hatter's maths trail.