A shake-up of the way maths is taught to teenagers is expected to be announced by the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris.

The review of the maths curriculum at GCSE, AS and A-level will aim to make the subject more useful once pupils enter the world of work.

Ms Morris's announcement comes in response to a critical report of maths and science teaching published by president of Wolfson College, Oxford, Sir Gareth Roberts in April.

Sir Gareth's review - commissioned by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown in his drive to improve Britain's record on investment in research and development - recommended paying maths and science teachers more to attract and retain good recruits.

Ms Morris, who will give details of her response on Tuesday, is expected to acknowledge complaints from employers that school leavers often have a poor grasp of maths.

'Power of maths'

Former television presenter of Think of a Number, Johnny Ball, said he believes children are not being introduced to the power and breadth of maths at a young enough age.

"What they need to understand is the mathematics that makes bridges stand up, the mathematics that empowers designers, the mathematics that empowers our technology - because we live in a technological age," said Mr Ball.

"And if we don't do that early - and we're not doing that early enough - then we don't get enough people going into the technical trades or engineering in our universities and UK PLC loses out."

Mr Ball said maths was a lot broader than mere numeracy.

"In an effort to get everybody up to a numeracy standard, the whole thing's been thinned out ," he said.

"As a result you're getting more people up to that standard, but that standard isn't high enough and a lot of the gifted children aren't really getting switched on to the power of maths by being extended - and you've got to extend kids, you've got to stretch them."