SHOCKER: UK Schools Ditch Analog Clocks Because Students Can’t Read the Time!

4 years ago

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Not only 4 in 10 UK students have a limited vocabulary to understand exam assignments, it gets worse. Believe it or not, kids these days can’t read analog clocks! According to The Telegraph, the UK schools are forced to replace analog clocks with digital ones for exam halls so that students could tell the time.

The Association of School and College Leaders deputy general secretary Malcolm Trobe says: "The current generation isn’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations." Despite reading the clock is a basic skill learned in elementary school, many kids read the clock hands incorrectly.

Mr. Trobe believes using digital clocks in exam rooms would eliminate the possibility of making a mistake when working against time. Unlike many UK schools ditching analog clocks in favor of their digital counterparts, USA schools are not going to retire the devices any time soon.

According to Carol Burris, the ability to tell the time using the analog clock is connected with a number of "very complex mathematical manipulations." Owing to her teaching experience of 25 years, Ms. Burris believes the analog clocks give students "an important real-world context" while learning math skills.

Twitter Reactions to Analog Clock Removal from the UK Schools

Of course, Twitter users wouldn’t stay aside and comment on the news. Most people would suddenly accuse teachers of not doing their job properly. But are the teachers really to blame?

Keep the clocks and remove the kids.
— GPTimeV (@5TimesTickin) May 3, 2018

Big mistake. Analog clocks are usually childrens first exposure to fractions and are important in later thinking in relationship to understanding pie graphs and later becoming comfortable with statistics. This is only my opinion.
— BrAd Bettencourt (@BrAdBettencour1) May 4, 2018