I READ with disbelief Carlos Alba's report, Mental maths on the way back (May 1), and that ''Secondary pupils are to be banned from using calculators in Standard Grade maths exams in a bid to encourage a return to basic numeracy skills''. For a moment I wondered if it was an April 1 spoof.
Will the next step by the banning of ballpoint pens and the reintroduction of quill pens and inkwells in a bid to improve the standard of handwriting?
Many parents and more likely their offspring will be concerned that they may have to forgo the benefits of the modern internal combustion engine for their journey to school.
In order that all the changes necessary to ''modernise'' our secondary schools be introduced simultaneously, it may be appropriate to reintroduce the cold in place of the hot shower as the former was considered by the ''traditionalists'' to be ''character-building''!
If the banning of calculators is the Scottish Qualifications Authority's answer to the problem of pupils leaving school with a poor standard in mental arithmetic, then possibly the problem is not with the pupils, but with those responsible for the direction of Scottish education.
Perhaps one of the many tasks for the new Scottish Parliament will be to review the remit of the SQA and its membership as it would appear that at present the Luddites hold sway.
Thomas L Inglis,
7 Menzies Avenue, Fintry.
May 1.
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