The object of school: to prepare students for the world of work. But how do non-calculator maths exams support this aim?
There are very few jobs which consistently necessitate the use of maths in which you would be unable to access a calculator – and in the majority of these jobs, such as architecture or engineering, the majority of the calculations are impossible to perform without a calculator anyway. Not even the most mentally nimble engineers would choose to calculate the dimensions needed for bridge in their heads or on paper without a calculator, and is unlikely that their employers would want them to. Such formulas are about as easy to perform without a calculator as it is to persuade a maths teacher that the bus stop method will not be useful in later life. Therefore by having non-calculator maths exams, we have taken away an integral piece of equipment for future jobs involving maths. Why not ban rulers and compasses too? Why not ban pens? That would certainly develop students’ ‘problem-solving’ abilities, which seems to be one of the main arguments in favour of non-calculator maths exams.
Furthermore, non-calculator maths skills are unlikely to have a significant value in our general, everday lives; when in real life are we ever out of reach of a calculator? There are currently 83.1 million mobile phones in the United Kingdom, when our population is only around 64.1 million people. Surely this means there are very few people who could not rapidly access a device with some sort of calculator function. And even fewer people will decide to whip out some paper and carry out the bus stop method in the middle of a shopping centre if they find themselves without calculator access. You need only count the number of people who work out exactly what 35% off a product is to see that this is true.
So why learn non-calculator maths, if it doesn’t make a significant difference to our jobs or our everyday lives? Maybe to improve students’ thought processes, to prepare them for life by teaching them to ‘problem solve’? But in a world increasingly dependent on tech, tech and more tech, surely practising obtaining the full potential from a calculator when learning maths is far more useful than learning to divide with the bus stop method with no technology at all. Yet we are still wringing grids and bus stops galore out of our students.
So overall, calculators are necessary for jobs to which maths is an integral skill; no one needing to do calculations in everyday life is ever far from a calculator; and having an aptitude for technology is increasingly valuable in the modern world. The reasoning behind having non-calculator exams is therefore beyond me.
Samantha Perren, Rosebery School
