The number of approved maths mastery textbooks available to resource-starved primary schools has doubled - to two.

Power Maths Key Stage 1, published by Pearson, has been approved by the DfE’s expert panel for match funding.

The announcement comes after Maths - No Problem! was announced as the only approved programme in July last year - causing controversy among headteachers who were worried about the lack of choice.

Power Maths has been developed by the Professor Jian Liu, who developed one of the most popular maths textbooks in China and Tony Staneff, leader of the White Rose Maths team, has also been given approval.

White Rose Maths* is a company that creates maths resources. It was separated last year from the White Rose maths hub, now West Yorkshire Maths Hub, based at Trinity Academy, Halifax.

The government is pumping millions into spreading the east Asian mastery approach to maths in a bid to replicate the success of Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong in international educational league tables.

The government’s £41 million Teaching for Mastery programme is being rolled out over four years, with new schools joining each year. It is due to cover more than half of primaries in England by 2020.

Primary schools on the Teaching for Mastery programme can claim match-funding of up to a maximum of £2,000 per school towards purchasing the approved textbooks. The funding is time-limited, meaning that the schools which were eligible last year had only Maths - No Problem! to choose from.

But schools that joined the Teaching for Mastery programme in 2017-18 can choose between the two schemes and have until the end of December 2018 to make the claim.

The approval process was set up by the Department for Education. Publishers were invited to submit textbooks for review by an expert panel. If the textbooks are approved, schools on the programme can claim match funding toward the cost of buying them. If not, schools can buy and use the textbooks but cannot claim match funding for them.

The next deadline for publishers to submit applications to the textbook review panel is 31 August 2018.

The Power Maths Key Stage 2 book is due to be published in the summer and will be submitted to the DfE panel for the next round.

• Tes is a partner of White Rose Maths