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The UK government has said that from 2014, it will ban calculators in maths tests for primary school children in England.

All 11-year-olds sit three maths tests. Pupils are allowed to use a calculator in the hardest of these. A sample question is: "Tickets for a school play cost ￡2.75 each. Dev sold 23 tickets. How much ticket money did Dev collect?"

Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss says children are over-reliant on calculators and that this means they don't have a good grounding in mental arithmetic or written arithmetic. She wants all children to be confident with other methods of addition, subtraction, times tables and division before they start using calculators in secondary school.

Research shows that 98% of pupils in England use calculators in primary school classes, compared with an international average of just 46%. At the same time, different research shows that children have become worse at maths in the past 30 years. Ms Truss believes that children are dependent on calculators and that's making the problem worse.

Some teaching experts argue there's a plus side to using calculators. They say that they are an important tool for maths, which children need to learn to use. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, says the ban "will diminish the skills set for primary pupils" and cause problems when they need to use calculators in secondary school.

Russell Hobby of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the advantage of using calculators is that children can focus on the maths problem itself, rather than the individual calculations needed to solve it.

Quiz 测验

According to the article, who believes children are over-reliant on calculators?

Elizabeth Truss

Will calculators be banned in primary school or secondary school maths tests?

In primary school

How many of the primary school maths tests allow calculators at the moment?

One

Is the following statement true, false or not given? More than twice as many English primary school children use calculators than in the rest of the world.

True

In the article, who disagrees with the calculator ban?

Christine Blower and Russell Hobby

Glossary 词汇表

ban 禁止

calculators 计算器

maths tests 数学测试

primary school 小学

sit 参加（考试）

over-reliant on 过于依赖（某物/某人）

grounding in 有基础

mental arithmetic 心算

addition 加法

subtraction 减法

times tables 乘法表

division 除法

secondary school 中学

dependent on 依赖

a plus side to 好的一面

tool 工具

skills set 一套技能

advantage 优势

maths problem 数学问题

calculations 计算