2023 compulsory mathematics plan

On January 3, 2023, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak announced that he would propose to make mathematics compulsory in schools until the age of 18.^[1][2][3]

Mathematics is compulsory on the curriculum for all pupils in England up to age 16,^[4] like in Spain.^[5]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of mathematics had suffered the consequences of online education.^[6] General Certificate of Secondary Education poor results in mathematics over the past years was also a reason to promote this measure.^[7]

Rishi Sunak said in his speech:

We’re one of the few countries not to require our children to study some form of maths up to the age of 18. Right now, just half of all 16 to 19 year olds study any maths at all. Yet in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, letting our children out into that world without those skills, is letting our children down. [...] But we will work with the sector to move towards all children studying some form of maths to 18.

— Rishi Sunak, PM speech on building a better future: 4 January 2023, Government of the United Kingdom^[8]

In 2021, a University of Oxford study concluded that the lack of mathematics education after the age of 16 negatively affects adolescent brain and cognitive development.^[9]

Mathematician and biologist Kit Yates from the University of Bath said in The Guardian an that "Sunak’s plan for compulsory maths doesn’t add up".^[10]

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