James Norton has called for arts and humanities to be nurtured following comments by the prime minister to make maths compulsory up to the age of 18.
The Happy Valley star, who featured in a gripping finale on Sunday night, appeared on The News Agents podcast to discuss how to get more people from working-class backgrounds into the arts.
He said: “First of all, you don’t take Rishi Sunak’s advice and make everyone take maths up to A-level.”
Sunak made the maths pledge during his first speech of the year as he set out five promises for the year ahead.
Speaking to an audience in Stratford, he said: “Right now, just half of all 16 to 19-year-olds study any maths at all.
“Yet in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, our children’s jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before, and letting our children out into the world without those skills is letting our children down.”
William Allen, a Teach First maths teacher at a school on the south coast, said Sunak’s plan shows “how out of touch this Government really is”.
“This plan fails to both understand the system and fundamentally overlooks the core challenges it is facing,” he said.
“Extending the numeracy studies to 18 misses the problems underpinning numeracy skills, which is that our curriculum is not catered towards numeracy.”
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