Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will pledge to make all pupils in English schools learn some form of maths to the age of 18, in a speech Wednesday seeking to reset his premiership amid a health crisis, ongoing industrial action and dire poll ratings for the ruling Conservative Party.
(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will pledge to make all pupils in English schools learn some form of maths to the age of 18, in a speech Wednesday seeking to reset his premiership amid a health crisis, ongoing industrial action and dire poll ratings for the ruling Conservative Party.
Sunak has put education reforms at the center of his domestic policy agenda as he tries to answer calls from his own lawmakers for a more positive vision for the UK. The prime minister will use his first set piece speech of the year to present his priorities for 2023 and unveil his “ambition for a better future for Britain,” according to a statement from his office.
This will include a new “ambition” to tackle poor numeracy levels by requiring all school pupils in England to learn maths to 18. Some 8 million adults in England have the numeracy skills of primary school children and only half of 16-19 year olds study any maths at all, the government has said.
However, maths will not become compulsory at A-Level, Sunak’s office clarified, with other routes such as new Core Maths and technical qualifications being explored. It was unable to provide a timeline for when the changes would come into effect, saying only that work would begin on the policy before the next election.
Sunak will say his education reforms are “personal for me”, describing them as “the single most important reason why I came into politics,” according to pre-briefed remarks emailed by Downing Street.
Read more: UK Strikes and Crumbling Services Add to Sunak’s Headaches
The prime minister may hope that a new schools policy will generate a more inspiring message from the Tory party, which has trailed the Labour opposition by some 20 points in recent polling. But his critics will also expect him to address the multitude of more immediate problems facing Britons at the start of the New Year.
The National Health Service is under “massive pressure” due to Covid and flu, Health Secretary Steve Barclay conceded on Tuesday, as hospitals across the UK declared critical incidents and patients were warned of long waiting times even for emergency treatments. Delays to emergency care could be causing 500 deaths a week, according to Dr. Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
Sunak will also be pressed on the industrial action that has paralyzed the country this week, with rail workers walking off the job as Britons returned to the office after the Christmas break. Only one in five trains is due to run in England, Scotland and Wales on Wednesday, and people are being told to only travel if necessary, as RMT union members go on strike. Nurses and ambulance drivers plan to strike again later in the month.
The protests stem from growing anger over the tightest cost-of-living squeeze in memory. Inflation reached a four-decade high last year, and wages aren’t keeping pace, especially in public services. There was “not a bottomless pit of money” to spend on increasing workers’ pay, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said on Tuesday.
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