Unions and teachers call Rishi Sunak’s new education plan ‘a misdirected fantasy’

Heads, teaching experts and unions have slammed Rishi Sunak’s plans to scrap A-levels and make Maths and English compulsory to 18 as a misdirected “fantasy” that won’t work because so many schools can’t recruit teachers in these subjects.

Sunak, who argued in his speech to the Conservative party conference last week that reforming education was “one of the biggest levers we have to change the direction of our country”, plans to replace both A-levels and the government’s new T-levels with a merged baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard.

Dr Rachel Roberts, who leads the postgraduate teacher training course in English at Reading University and is the former chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the Observer: “Given the national crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, the idea of making English and Maths compulsory to 18 seems quite preposterous at the moment.”

Secondary heads across the country who say they have become used to adverts for Maths, computing and science teachers not attracting a single suitable applicant, have reported that for the first time they are now seriously struggling to find English teachers. Applications to train to teach English were down by a third at Roberts’ university this year, a trend she says was replicated across the country.

The Department for Education confirmed this weekend that early career bonuses for teachers in shortage areas in deprived schools and colleges would come into force next academic year. But the tax-free bonuses of up to £6,000 a year for teachers in the first five years of their career will focus only on maths, physics, computing and chemistry. There will be no extra support for English teachers.

Dr Roberts said that, as well as it being unfair to those who have stayed in teaching for longer, few experts think these bonuses will work. “The bursary system for initial teacher training hasn’t really done anything to increase numbers in shortage subjects, and certainly not for English.”

Related: Flood of English and maths resits expected amid tougher GCSE grading

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, said: “Grand aims declaring that we will deliver Maths and English to 18 feel like a fantasy when set against the real challenges our education system is grappling with amid growing societal inequalities.”

He argued that enabling all teenagers to master basic maths and literacy skills by the age of 16 was a far greater priority than reforming A-levels. “It’s scandalous that a third of pupils in England fail to secure a basic grade 4 in English and maths in their GCSEs,” he said.

Will Teece, headteacher at Brookvale Groby Learning Campus, a secondary academy in Leicester, said heads were hoping Sunak’s announcements were “just noise” and wouldn’t ever happen.

“The idea of additional teaching hours and extra maths is a fantasy. A-level changes are not needed at all in my view.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said Sunak’s announcement showed “just how out of touch this government has become with the teaching profession.”

“There are so many immediate crises that schools are now dealing with, from recruitment and retention, to crumbling school buildings and the lack of support for pupils with SEND,” he said.