Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss says children are over-reliant on calculators and that this means they don't have a good grounding in mental arithmetic or written arithmetic. She wants all children to be confident with other methods of addition, subtraction, times tables and division before they start using calculators in secondary school.
Research shows that 98% of pupils in England use calculators in primary school classes, compared with an international average of just 46%. At the same time, different research shows that children have become worse at maths in the past 30 years. Ms Truss believes that children are dependent on calculators and that's making the problem worse.
Some teaching experts argue there's a plus side to using calculators. They say that they are an important tool for maths, which children need to learn to use. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, says the ban "will diminish the skills set for primary pupils" and cause problems when they need to use calculators in secondary school.
Russell Hobby of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the advantage of using calculators is that children can focus on the maths problem itself, rather than the individual calculations needed to solve it.
Quiz 測驗 According to the article, who believes children are over-reliant on calculators?
Elizabeth Truss
Will calculators be banned in primary school or secondary school maths tests?
In primary school
How many of the primary school maths tests allow calculators at the moment?
One
Is the following statement true, false or not given? More than twice as many English primary school children use calculators than in the rest of the world.
True
In the article, who disagrees with the calculator ban?
Christine Blower and Russell Hobby
Glossary 词汇表 ban禁止 calculators計算器 maths tests數學測試 primary school小學 sit參加（考試） over-reliant on過於依賴（某物/某人） grounding in有基礎 mental arithmetic心算 addition加法 subtraction減法 times tables乘法表 division除法 secondary school中學 dependent on依賴 a plus side to好的一面 tool工具 skills set一套技能 advantage優勢 maths problem數學問題 calculations計算
