(2) Many people, especially women and the less educated, are inhibited about using mathematics and they try to avoid doing mathematical calculations.

(3) There are many reasons for these inhibitions, and these can include the unsatisfactory experience of the formal learning of mathematics at school with its apparent irrelevance to everyday life.

4) Since the mathematics used varied widely according to each adult's lifestyle, it suggests that mathematics might be more usefully taught and learned through a functional approach.

5) Many of those interviewed used very simple and rather clumsy methods, suggesting that much of their school mathematics had been forgotten or its relevance never perceived.

6) The most frequent difficulties were experienced dealing with percentages, ratios, graphs and charts, timetables and metric units.

In order to assess adults mathematical ability and to validate the results of the Reading, Berkshire study, a survey was taken in 1981 with 2890 people covering a representative sample of England, Scotland and Wales over sixteen years of age. (Adult Numeracy Study: Tabulated Results of a Survey, ACACE). The findings, cited by Warburton (1982), showed that:

(1) One adult in ten cannot cope with simple addition.

(2) Three adults in ten cannot cope with simple subtraction.

(3) Three adults in ten cannot cope with simple multiplication.

(4) Three adults in ten cannot cope with simple division.

(5) Three adults in ten cannot cope with simple percentages.

(6) Four adults in ten cannot cope with a simple timetable.

(7) Six adults in ten do not understand the meaning of the rate of inflation.

The results of this survey are clear. In Canada, no similar study has ever been undertaken. For the purpose of this paper, let us assume that the results of this study may be generalized, and that the findings in Britain can be a beacon shedding light on the numeracy needs in other developed countries. While the second study establishes clearly the need for numeracy tuition, the first study gives some direction on how this tuition may be best provided.