Local MP hopes for SATs calculator ban

Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss said yesterday that she had become more hopeful that the use of calculators will be stopped in Key Stage 2 SATs maths tests for 11-year-olds.

She was speaking after schools minister Nick Gibb told her in a Commons debate that he 'broadly' agreed with her view that too much encouragement is given to the use of calculators in primary schools.

Referring to an international student assessment showing that the UK was in 28th position in a league of maths skills, the SW Norfolk MP argued that 'calculator use too early does have a negative impact on mathematical ability'. The encouragement to use them that pupils aged seven, eight and nine currently receive in this country was creating a danger of 'getting into a sat-nav process in which students are led through a series of steps' she said. It was part of a problem with technology in Britain in which too often it was seen as a 'magic box rather than a tool'.

Mr Truss illustrated her case with a reference to a 2010 Key Stage 2 SATs test in which students were told that roses were 40p each and asked how many could be bought for �2. She could not understand, she said, why a calculator was allowed for such an elementary sum.

Mr Gibb said that the government is already looking at the issue of how calculators are used in primary school, and emphasised that the learning of basic mathematics should not be hindered 'by allowing people to become dependent on calculators too early'. Some students in Singapore are two-and-a-half years ahead of their peers in the UK in maths, he pointed out.

At the start of the debate, Ms Truss said that 'I an not anti-calculator' and that 'I count myself as a bit of a geek'. But she continued: 'Technology has to be used at the right time and at the right age.'

After the debate, she said she is firmly of the opinion that the use of calculators should be prohibited in Key Stage 2 SATs tests. She did not want a complete ban on their use by pupils aged 7-9, she continued, but feels that the encouragement currently given is excessive. The response from Mr Gibb to her speech had been 'positive and good'.

* Asked by the EDP straight after the debate to multiply 11 by 11 in her head, Ms Truss immediately came up with the correct answer: 121.