Teenagers should study math and English in school until they are 18, says Rishi Sunak

The former Chancellor has outlined a three-point plan to transform post-16 education, including proposals to create a 'Russell Group' of colleges techniques.

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Image: PA)

Conservative leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak will seek to have students study math and English in school until they are 18.

The admitted underdog in the race to become the next prime minister says he shares his parents' "passion" for education.

He even suggested he wanted to work in the government's education department after becoming an MP, having been 'inspired' by Michael Gove.

Setting out a three-point plan to transform education, the former chancellor pledged to phase out college degrees that don't improve students' 'earning potential', create a Russell Group of colleges world class techniques and to introduce a UK Baccalaureate which would prevent 16 year olds from dropping out of maths and English.

This comes a week after her Tory leadership rival, Liz Truss, ran for 'Primary Education Minister'.

Rishi Sunak was privately educated at Winchester College, where he was Head Boy (

Picture:

ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Mr. Sunak told the Sunday Times: "We are almost unique in the western world, for an advanced economy and all successful education systems, in allowing people to drop out of maths and stop studying their mother tongue at 16. .

"In Germany, in France, in Asia, young people study mathematics until they are 18 and in the functioning of a modern economy, I think it will hold us back if our young people do not have these skills. "

Ms Truss pledged to replace failing academies with new free schools, and promised that students with the highest A-level marks would receive an automatic invitation to an interview at Oxford or Cambridge.

After private studies at Winchester College, where he was head boy, and a degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, Mr. Sunak completed an MBA at Stanford University in California.