Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently outlined a plan to improve maths skills in England, which will see young people study the subject at school until they are 18. This sounds straightforward but it’s worth considering how tricky new educational policy is to get right.
Take, for example, a previous attempt by the UK government to improve children’s maths skills. In 2016, a multi-million pound initiative was launched offering more than 8,000 primary schools in England funding to buy maths textbooks featuring teaching methods based on those used in some east Asian countries.
