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If asked to quickly divide a bill, or publicly calculate a percentage, does your mind go blank, do you feel uneasy? Maths anxiety could be impacting 20% of the country, but few people have ever heard the term.

It can start in childhood but shape your whole life – impacting your career choices, earning potential, even chances of going to prison.

Anjula Mutanda asks where and when does it start, what role do teachers and parents play and is there a remedy. Why are UK students more anxious about maths than anywhere else in the world and what impact could this little discussed anxiety be having on the nation?

14 year old Noah tells Anjula what maths anxiety really feels like and how it affects his life at school. His parents are eager to know how they can help - they’re fine supporting him in every other subject, but have no idea what to do with maths anxiety.

To help answer questions and find solutions, Anjula is joined by:
Professor Margaret Brown, President of the Maths Anxiety Trust; cognitive scientist and President of Barnard College Professor Sian Beilock; Stanford Maths Education Professor Jo Boaler; Tom Hunt, Associate Professor of Psychology and lead of the University of Derby’s Mathematics Anxiety Research Group; Roi Cohen Kadosh, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Surrey and PhD researcher at Abertay University, Dawn Short.
Producer: Sarah Bowen