Happy times tables

EVERY child in England will be expected to know their times tables by heart by the age of 11. This is described as a tough test which will include the 12 times table.

Is this supposed to be aspirational? How far have education standards fallen?

I’m 76 and my classmates and I in Edinburgh knew our tables by the age of seven.

When we were 11 years old we had begun to learn algebra, trigonometry and geometry.

And by the age of 11 we had to read designated books including works by authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan.

At 12 we started learning Latin, invaluable as the basis of a great many European languages – including English – and a great help to those of us who went on to study a foreign language. French was compulsory.

Scottish education was hailed as a world leader but our education standards have fallen behind those in England and we have in Angela Constance an Education Secretary whose grasp of grammar is woeful – ‘the figures have went down’ [ sic], – and who I doubt would make a satisfactory classroom assistant.

D. LEWIS, via email. AS a teacher and head for more than 30 years, I always insisted on multiplication tables being taught by rote and practice in every class and school for which I was responsible.

There was, however, constant pressure from the local authority to adopt more ‘modern’ methods, and the sad and perhaps inevitable result was that those who supported the new methods were those who gained promotion and influence.

Thus the rot spread, politically motivated in many cases, until it became accepted dogma among educationalists.

Thank goodness this wasn’t the case with all teachers, though they often worked ‘under cover’ with the help of enthusiastic and sensible parents to equip their children with t he basic building blocks needed to c onstruct a s ound mathematical framework.

I welcome this belated return to sanity and hope liberal modernists of all persuasions are forbidden to put their sticky fingers anywhere near this Great Leap Forward.

DAVID PINN, Wadebridge, Cornwall.