All Schoolchildren Should Study Maths Until Age 18, British PM Sunak Says
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street for the House of Commons for his first Prime Minister’s Questions in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.
James TweedieBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declared that all children should study maths until they leave school at 18. In his first speech of 2023, the British prime minister said the high-tech, high wage economy his Conservative Party has pledged needs workers with better numeracy and “analytical” skills.
“Letting our children out into the world without those skills is letting our children down," Rishi Sunak warned. "One of the biggest changes in mindset we need in education today is to reimagine our approach to numeracy. Right now, just half of all 16-year-olds study any maths at all. Yet in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, our children's jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before."
A Downing Street spokesperson said that the details of Sunak’s “new mission” would be announced in “due course,” but stressed that the PM was not proposing that all pupils study maths at A-level — the UK’s pre-university exam grade.Proposals include a “core maths” qualification, incorporation into the new T-levels — analogous to the two-year baccalaureate integrated courses in some European countries and roughly equivalent to three A-levels — along with “more innovative options.”The opposition Labour Party called Sunak’s scheme “an empty pledge” if the government was unable to recruit more maths teachers.Reform Party founder and broadcaster Nigel Farage was also critical of Sunak’s “big idea to save the nation,” asking: “How will quadratic equations help to solve broken Britain?”Farage dismissed the plan as “more misguided nonsense from a hopelessly out of touch PM,” and said a better way to improve numeracy was “to get 18-year-olds to play Darts, not attend maths lessons that they will hate.”
