The prime minister’s ambition to ensure that all pupils study maths up to the age of 18, first outlined in January and reiterated in a speech on Monday, has attracted a variety of responses ranging from “laudable” to “shortsighted” and “misguided”.
There is a consensus, however, that the key obstacle is the critical shortage of specialist maths teachers – among other subject specialists – which already threatens to undermine maths education in schools in England.
