PM Sunak wants to make maths education mandatory until 18 in UK. Here’s why

The United Kingdom Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak expected to continue his bid to make maths educationcompulsory until 18, as he believes that Britain possesses an inherent “anti-maths mindset” whichis costing the country. In an upcoming speech, the excerpts of which were released by 10 Downing Street, Sunak, on Monday (April 17) might argue that failure to consider numeracy as a basic skill like reading is costing the UK economy huge sums.

Sunak’s upcoming speech in north London

“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,” the UK PM isto say, as per his speech briefed in advance by Downing Street, reported the Guardian.

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It added, “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.” Sunak isto pitch his campaign to “transform” UK’s supposed national approach to the subject saying that it is not some “nice to have” and change how Britain values maths.

The UK PM is also expected to cite statistics showing that Britainis below average for numeracy among industrialised countries as more than eight million adults reportedly have maths skills below those expected in schools for a child aged nine.

“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 as those with competent numeracy,” Sunak is expected to say.

The UK PM will also say that this change will not be delivered overnight and how they“need to recruit and train the maths teachers.”

UK government’s previous response to the issue

This comes months after the British government had pledged to set up an advisory committee to determine if they shouldmake mathscompulsory from the current minimum of 16 to 18. The group would include mathematicians, education experts and business representatives to advise on the numeracy content needed.

However,critics, some of which are from theopposition parties have called the promise meaningless saying that the incumbent Tory government does not have a plan or the means including money to recruit and train more maths teachers to implement their mandates.

“Once again, the prime minister needs to show his working: he cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers,” said UK’s Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as per the Guardian.

She added that the Tory government has failed UK’s children for 13 years and “repeatedly misses their target for new maths teachers, with maths attainment gaps widening and existing teachers leaving in their droves.”

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