Carol Vorderman slams Rishi Suank after 'maths until 18' plan
5 January 2023, 14:15 | Updated: 1 May 2024, 12:00
Carol Vorderman: What is happening in this wonderful country of ours is morally corrupt
Carol Vorderman blasts Rishi Sunak's proposal of compulsory maths until 18 in his first speech of 2023, asking: “Are we in a parallel universe here?”
The author and broadcaster criticised the PM following his first speech of 2023.
Nick Ferrari asked: “What did you make of yesterday, what he said about maths?” Nick asked.
Back in 2009 David Cameron and Michael Gove asked Ms Vorderman to lead a review into the teaching of maths up to the age of 18.
“For me, it's always about the children, what's best for the children”, she replied, saying this was not about political affiliation as she worked with former Education Secretary David Blunkett and Tony Blair to introduce numeracy hour in primary schools.
Ms Vorderman added that listening to Rishi Sunak’s speech yesterday, she wondered: “Are we in a parallel universe here?”
“People are suffering,” she said, explaining how she “came from a very poor family, single parent, three kids” and was on free school meals. “I know how hard it is”, she went on.
“You went to Winchester, which is like Eton B”, the broadcaster continued, referring to Rishi Sunak. “Does he have any conception of what real people are having to go through and the lack of opportunities for children?”
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She said the education “system is not working” in a way that would be conducive to pupils studying maths until 18, adding that her online maths school taught half a million kids in lockdown for free for four months.
“If you get to age 14 and you are very wary and anxious about numbers, there is no point in the world trying to teach you about trigonometry” unless they’re going to do “science or engineering”, the media personality explained.
“Thank you”, Nick agreed.
The former Countdown co-host added that “you don’t need to teach to an exam all the time”, and that learning about mortgages, salaries and taxes are “practical things that will help these kids as they get older”.
“You had already been very critical of the Prime Minister hadn't you, and spoken about a degree of negligence,” Nick said.
“I think there is”, Ms Vorderman replied. “My question is at what point does political negligence become criminal?”
“What is happening in this wonderful country of ours is morally corrupt, in my opinion”, she asserted.
The former Countdown co-host reminded listeners of the PPE ‘VIP lanes’ and Rishi Sunak’s wife’s former non-dom tax status.
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She felt that the government is creating laws to “allow these loopholes to happen” so that “what you and I might call morally criminal is not illegal”.
