University departments and parents of primary school students constitute different audiences. What parents see as crucial mathematics educators see as inconsequential and pure mathematicians have yet another view. Many primary school teachers have little understanding of mathematics and rudimentary skills in arithmetic. This all makes for confusion and tension in curriculum and testing of primary school students. While maths departments usually have a sane outlook, the area of maths education is more likely to be marked by faddish ways of thinking.
Parents remain traditional and are unaffected by new views.