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There is "serious doubt" about the government meeting its 2011 target for maths teaching, the Commons public accounts committee has warned.
In a report on mathematics performance in primary schools, MPs warned that the Department for Children, Schools and Families needs to "radically" re-think its strategy for pupil attainment.
Currently, the department has a target for 84.5 per cent of primary school pupils to make at least two national curriculum levels of progress between the ages of 7 and 11 by 2011.
But in 2007 just 76 per cent of pupils made two levels of progress, and the report estimates that a further 12,000 pupils a year will have to make progress in order to meet the target laid out in the department's national strategy.
The PAC also warned that primary school pupils' understanding of maths has not improved despite billions of pounds in government investment.
Approximately 30,000 children progressed to secondary school last year with the maths skills of a seven-year-old at best, the report stated.
It condemned this record as "disgraceful", especially as over £2.3bn was spent on teaching for mathematics in 2006/07 alone.
Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "It is disgraceful that over one fifth of all primary school children reach the end of their primary education without a secure grasp of basic mathematical skills.
"This can have serious long-term consequences: for many then continue through secondary school without acquiring basic numeracy skills, impairing their chances in life and leaving them later in need of expensive remedial education."
But schools minister Sarah McCarthy Fry said that last year, over 100,000 more children achieved a level four in their maths at the age of 11 than in 1997.
"This is a tremendous achievement, of which our pupils and teachers should be rightly proud," she said.
"We have already accepted the main recommendation from a recent independent review of primary maths that every school should have a specialist maths teacher and have pledged £24m over the next three years for a training programme for teachers.
"We are also investing £50m in the Every Child Counts programme, which has specially trained teachers helping children catch up with maths in one-to-one support," she added.
Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "The government is not getting value for the money they have piled into education and the country is falling behind in international league tables as a result.
"The government has failed to grasp the nettle and replace methods of teaching which have failed with tried and tested methods used in countries that have much higher levels of maths achievement."
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