Pupils ‘don’t know how to read clock face’

The digitally dependent pupils

SECONDARY SCHOOLS are reportedly having to swap traditional clocks for digital ones because pupils cannot tell the time.

A debate between teachers on the issue has been sparked following a report in the Times

Educational Supplement of a conference being told that pupils needed a digital clock to be able to tell the time. Suggestions have been made that digital clocks are being installed in exam halls for teenagers.

Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said young people were much more used to using digital clocks.

He told The Telegraph: “The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generation.

“They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”

IF PEOPLE do still have the time of day, they should read the perturbing report about those secondary schools across the country that are replacing analogue clocks with digital ones in GCSE exam halls.

The reason? Britain is home to a generation of young people who are so reliant on modern technology that they don’t know how to read a traditional clock face and, therefore, can’t manage their time in exams accordingly.

It’s an alarm call that needs to be heeded. Reading a clock should be as fundamental as learning the times table – and means there are no excuses for lateness, or tardiness, if the ubiquitous mobile phone goes into meltdown.

Not only does it reflect poorly on schools, and also parents for not being sufficiently engaged with their children on such basics of numeracy, but it will perturb all those whose grasp on geography, science and wider knowledge was such that they could tell the time by the sun’s position.