-The Indian Express
More than a quarter of children between the age group of 10 and 12 years cannot add two small sums of money without using a calculator, a new study has revealed.
The research indicated that youngsters are leaving primary school unable to spell, add or do times tables and their parents do not have the time to help them.
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, a media report said.
Despite this, parents only manage to spend less than 10 minutes a day to assist their children with learning, according to online tuition service mytutor, which commissioned the survey.
The survey also revealed that over a quarter (27 per cent) of children surveyed could not add 2.36 pounds and 1.49 pounds to get 3.85 pounds; more than one in five (22 per cent) could not use the correct version of “they’re”, “there” or “their” in a sentence and almost a third (31 per cent) could not select the correct use of an apostrophe from three simple sentences.
Additionally, more than a third (36 per cent) were unable to divide 415 by five, while a quarter did not know the answer to seven multiplied by six.
“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,” Nick Smith, head of online tuition at mytutor, said.