Would dozens leave children at sixes and sevens?

Society says a dozenal system using the number 12 would be more efficient for division and transactions

Children should be taught to count in 12s rather than 10s, as 12 can be divided by more whole numbers, campaigners have said. The Dozenal Society of Great Britain has submitted a petition to the Government to change the UK’S decimalised counting system into a dozenal one.

SCHOOLS should teach children to count in 12s rather than 10s, campaigners have said.

The Dozenal Society of Great Britain has argued that a system that would see two new numerals created would be easier to learn as 12 can be divided by more whole numbers than 10.

The society has launched a petition to the Government to change the UK’S decimalised system of counting into a dozenal one. Proponents of the change argue a system with a base of 12 rather than 10 would also be more efficient for counting, division and transactions.

Shaun Ferguson, a 79-year-old retired maths teacher and secretary of the society, said: “If you give children 12 blocks to play with, there are more patterns. If you look at the times table, there are more factors coming in. There’s two, that’s obvious, and then three, four and six. It’s a nice pattern.

“I would like everything to be run in 12s. People say to me, ‘You’re barmy’, but I think I’m right and I think 12 is a far better base number, although it may be a long time before the world accepts what I say.”

The proposal has piqued the interest of academics, who admit 12 is an “attractive number” to use as a base. Dr Vicky Neale, a maths lecturer at Oxford University, said: “There are more [times tables] that work more nicely in base 12, because there are more numbers that divide exactly into 12.”

However, she cautioned that any attempt to change the decimal system “would be so confusing for me and for everybody else”.

Most of the world currently operates a base 10 system, where we have 10 numerals 0 to 9 from which all numbers are made. However, throughout history other peoples have used different base numbers, such as the Babylonians, who had a base of 60 numerals. Their system was influenced by the fact there are close to 360 days in the year and is the reason we have 60 minutes in an hour.

Ancient peoples’ propensity to count the knuckles on their fingers, as opposed to their 10 fingers and thumbs, is thought to have led them to use 12 as a base measuring unit.

The society has argued that a new system should be fashioned by creating two new numerals representing 10 and 11, so that the numeral 10 would represent the number 12. In this system, 100 would represent 144.

Stephen Wood, another proponent of the dozenal system, said: “I think whenever you are working with fractions, it would be easier than working with base 10.” The secondary school physics teacher from Dorset added: “Once you start thinking about it, you start to think, ‘Well, why not use base 12?’ and that there must have been some mistake made historically.”

SIR – It is faddish attitudes such as those expressed by Frances Hampsonjones (“Decoding not reading”, Letters September 29) that have done so much harm to children since the Seventies.

Literacy standards have risen dramatically since synthetic phonics were reintroduced. First you have to decode, then you learn to understand.

Dr Hampson-jones should not decry the Clackmannanshire study and Nick Gibb’s common-sense article. She is entirely missing the point.

I’m sure that good primary school teachers can both teach children to decode and ensure that they understand what they are reading at the same time. Joanna Wakefield

Chelmsford, Essex