RISHI SUNAK admitted today that England lacks enough teachers to deliver the subject to all under-16s, leaving his proposed “maths to 18” policy in serious doubt.

The Prime Minister’s admission came after he reiterated his pledge to ensure all pupils in England study some form of the subject until the age of 18.

The National Education Union stressed the government has repeatedly missed its recruitment targets for the austerity-hit sector, while school leaders’ union ASCL slammed the “vague and poorly thought-out policy” as a distraction from ongoing national education strikes. 

In a speech to students, teachers and business leaders in London, Mr Sunak claimed an “anti-maths mindset” is holding the economy back, as he announced a subject review.

A group of advisers, including mathematicians and business representatives, will examine “core maths content” and consider whether a new qualification for the subject is necessary, he said.

Downing Street has already ruled out a compulsory maths A-level, but Mr Sunak insisted action is needed as a “cultural sense that it’s OK to be bad at maths had left the nation with one of the least numerate populations in the developed world.”

But, in response to union concerns that Westminster has failed to meet its own increasingly modest maths teacher recruitment target — reduced by a whopping 39 per cent in 2020 — the PM accepted there are not enough educators to even meet existing requirements, let alone an expansion of maths teaching. 

“On teachers … we will need more maths teachers, and we know that,” he told Islington’s London Screen Academy.

The “big long-term reform is not going to happen overnight,” he conceded.

NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted said: “Parents and school staff will be left scratching their heads — the government’s policies on education simply don’t add up.”

ASCL head Geoff Barton warned the move “seems like an attempt to divert attention away from the most pressing matter which is the industrial dispute triggered by the erosion of teacher pay and conditions.”

Paul Whiteman, head of fellow school leaders’ union NAHT, stressed the importance of protecting “student choice” and said he has “no confidence that the government would be in a position to provide enough well-qualified specialist maths teachers.”

The “reheated, empty pledge” was also blasted by Labour shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.