In his first speech of the year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will outline his priorities for 2023 on Wednesday, hoping to reassure his uneasy Conservative Party that he has what it takes to lead them into the next general election.
In an effort to combat innumeracy, he is also likely to propose plans for all students in England to study maths until the age of 18. Sunak sees improving the country’s numerical literacy as a key to realising his dream of a brighter future for Britain.
“This is personal for me. Every opportunity I’ve had in life began with the education I was so fortunate to receive,” he will declare, outlining a new goal of guaranteeing that all English schoolchildren study arithmetic until they are 18 years old.
“And it is the single most important reason why I came into politics: to give every child the highest possible standard of education. With the right plan – the right commitment to excellence – I see no reason why we cannot rival the best education systems in the world.”
His office revealed that Maths will be taught to all kids up to the age of 18 in order to remedy weak numeracy, which the OECD identified as impacting “especially substantial proportions of adults in England” in extracts from the speech posted on Tuesday evening.
Sunak entered the office after his predecessor and former competitor Liz Truss was driven from power in October after just 44 days when markets rejected her unfunded tax-cutting proposals. Sunak had already tried unsuccessfully to become prime minister the previous year.
Since then, he has had to deal with a variety of issues, including the health care being in crisis, thousands of workers going on strike over pay, inflation lingering around 40-year highs, and economists’ predictions that Britain will enter a protracted recession.
Sunak lost to Truss in the Conservative leadership campaign in September. Some have questioned whether he has what it takes to lead the party to victory in the upcoming election. Wednesday’s address will be both a declaration of intent and a response to those criticisms.