Children who just can’t add without calculator

Youngsters are leaving primary school unable to spell, add or do times tables and their parents do not have the time to help them, new research shows.

Around a third cannot do division or basic algebra, while half do not know what a noun is or cannot identify an adverb. Almost a third cannot use apostrophes correctly.

Despite this, parents only manage to spend less than 10 minutes a day helping their children with their learning, according to online tuition service mytutor, which commissioned the survey.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) of children surveyed could not add £2.36 and £1.49 to get £3.85; more than one in five (22 per cent) could not use the correct version of “they’re”, “there” or “their” in a sentence; almost a third (31 per cent) could not pick the correct use of an apostrophe from three simple sentences, and 42 per cent could not spell the word “secretaries” correctly.

In addition, more than a third could not divide 415 by five and a quarter did not know the answer to seven multiplied by six.

Almost half of parents surveyed said they think their child is worse at maths than they were at the same age, and more than a third felt their child’s English was worse than theirs was at the same age.

Nick Smith, head of online tuition at mytutor, said: “Maths and English are key skills for children as they enter secondary school, yet our study shows that many are already slipping behind their peers and could be lacking confidence.

“Despite half of parents thinking their children aren’t as good as they were at the same age, most parents only manage to spend fewer than 10 minutes a day reading with them, helping them with homework or doing educational activities at home.”

Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg said: “Labour raised standards in maths and English, with a focus on the 3Rs through initiatives such as the literacy and numeracy hours.

“In 1997, only six in 10 children reached the required standard Level 4 in English and maths. By 2010, it had gone up to eight in 10. Clearly, as this reports demonstrates, there is still much to be done to ensure children leave primary school with a grip of the basics.”

The findings come just days before the publication of reformed league tables, which will allow parents to compare schools based on the amount of progress made by the top pupils aged between 11 and 16.

The figures may make uncomfortable reading for education leaders in the region after provisional results released last October showed that Yorkshire had the worst GCSE results in the country for a fourth year in a row. More than 27,000 pupils – 45 per cent – failed to achieve the benchmark of five good passes including English and maths.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the new tables would expose secondary schools that try to play the system or fail to push bright children.

He said: “We are determined to stamp out any incentives to ‘game’ the system whereby some schools focus just on those pupils who will affect their league table position. It is vital that all schools give every pupil the best chance to maximise their potential. We intend to make available data formerly kept secret in the Department for Education.”