Completely agree with this. I've always thought we should have a core academic curriculum to 16 that goes beyond maths/english/science. And yes maths to 18 is in principle a good idea (if the quals are designed right and it's funded properly!)
John SpringfordLearned a lot from this. Also Sam's point about keeping options open reinforces the view that we specialise too early in *academic* subjects. Numeracy and literacy are very useful, but you can stop doing any maths/stats/humanities at 16.