Rishi Sunak to make maths compulsory for all pupils until 18 to ‘boost the economy’
ALL pupils will be forced to take a new maths test under the PM’s plan to make the subject compulsory until 18.
Getting better at sums will help boost the economy by billions of pounds, Rishi Sunak will say today as he also demands the country sheds its anti-maths mindset.
The PM is determined to press ahead with his controversial proposals to keep teenagers studying maths after GCSE.
He will make clear it does not mean everyone will have to take it for A level and will instead propose a new qualification.
He has assembled a panel of experts to draw up a curriculum.
Mr Sunak will say this morning: “We’ve got to change this anti-maths mindset. We’ve got to start prizing numeracy for what it is — a key skill every bit as essential as reading.
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“I won’t sit back and allow this cultural sense that it’s OK to be bad at maths to put our children at a disadvantage.”
The UK is one of the least numerate among developed nations and eight million adults have maths skills below those expected of a nine-year-old.
Mr Sunak will add: “If we are going to grow the economy not just over the next two years, but the next 20, we simply cannot allow poor numeracy to cost our economy tens of billions a year or to leave people twice as likely to be unemployed.”
But Labour said the failure to recruit enough teachers meant Mr Sunak’s idea did not add up.
