The cult of maths has brainwashed our schools – and Rishi Sunak has fallen for it too | Simon Jenkins

The arts, sport, acquisition of complex life skills: all must be sacrificed on the altar of the easily measurable

Which item from his most important speech as prime minister did Rishi Sunak decided to leak on Monday? Would it be the NHS crisis, rail strikes, inflation or Ukraine? None of the above: instead it was maths. Why maths? What on earth went through his mind?

The cult of maths knows no bounds. It rules global education like no other subject, its status akin to medieval Latin. The reason is...