IN A move that comes long after the harmful effects of allowing the electronic calculator to take over from mental arithmetic in the classroom have become plain, schools were this week set to be hit by a government ban on their use by under-eights.

So back will come old-fashioned chanting of multiplication tables aimed to ensure that every youngster knows them by heart.

"Progressive"= teachers may baulk at the return of learning parrot-fashion by rote, but what they cannot deny is that it works.

For surveys show that the mathematical ability of British pupils, "taught" arithmetic with the aid of calculators, trails far behind that of their counterparts in countries who have discovered the use of numbers without the help of a microchip.

The old adage that no-one needs to know how a car works in order to drive one, but is extremely glad of the know-how when a breakdown happens, is one that applies to this situation.

This overdue back-to-basics move in schools will add understanding to knowledge - whereas over-reliance on the calculator took it away from a generation.

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