Three-year-olds will focus on counting, recognising shapes and problem-solving at nursery school and primary pupils will get more one-to-one numeracy training under a government review of maths teaching.

The new Schools Secretary Ed Balls said that it would form a key part of a ten-year review of children’s policy, a crackdown on bad behaviour and an expansion of the academies programme to enable every university in England to become a sponsor.

Mr Balls told the Commons that he wanted to refocus education policy on “standards, not structures” and that he hoped that the maths review would help to “raise our game in maths”.

He said: “A child who cannot read, write or master basic maths will never succeed in education.” Ministers hope that the review, which will be conducted by Sir Peter Williams, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education based at the Royal Society, will do for maths teaching what the Rose review by Sir Jim Rose did for literacy teaching. This resulted in a reintroduction of phonics teaching in primary schools.

Pamela Sammons, Professor of Education at Nottingham University, said that there was evidence that an early grasp of maths paid dividends. “By age 10, children who have learnt number concepts early and played with puzzles and problem-solving do better in cognitive tests,” she said.

Mr Balls said that the schools inspectorate Ofsted would monitor disruptive behaviour. Teachers would be encouraged to order after-school and weekend detention for repeat offenders. Legislation to raise the leaving age from 16 to 18 would go ahead.

In the most controversial part of his statement, Mr Balls called on universities to set up academies, the independent state schools created by Tony Blair. He said that they would be exempted from having to invest the usual £2 million to become sponsors.

“The test of whether an organisation can be a sponsor should not be its bank balance but whether it can demonstrate leadership, innovation and commitment to the public interest,” he said. Academies would have to work more closely with local authorities at every stage, suggesting that they could not simply be imposed in an area without local agreement.

Critics seized on the announcement as evidence of a major government retreat over the academies programme. They pointed out that the key tenets – independence from local authority control, flexibility over the curriculum and £2 million sponsorship – have all gone.

Michael Gove, the Tory schools spokesman, said: “The original idea of academies was that they broke free from local authority control. Mr Balls seems to have put the brakes on that.”

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at Buckingham University, said: “It’s another change in the concept. One wonders what is the advantage now of having this type of school.”

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