British Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, according to a head teachers’ union.
After pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they could not read the time correctly on analogue clocks, teachers decided to install digital devices instead.
The Telegraph reports: Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said youngsters have become accustomed to using digital devices.
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“The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” he told The Telegraph.
“They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”
Mr Trobe, a former headmaster, said that teachers want their students to feel as relaxed as possible during exams. Having a traditional clock in the room could be a cause of unnecessary stress, he added.
He said that schools are trying to make everything as “as easy and straightforward as possible” for pupils during their exams.
“You don’t want them to put their hand up to ask how much time is left,” he said.
“Schools will inevitably be doing their best to make young children feel as relaxed as the can be. There is actually a big advantage in using digital clocks in exam rooms because it is much less easy to mistake a time on a digital clock when you are working against time.”
A number of teachers shared their experiences about the issue on social media, following a presentation on the topic at the Partners in Excellence conference in London.
Stephanie Keenan, head of English at Ruislip High School in north-west London, said that her school has installed digital clocks in the exam hall after agreeing that many year nine, ten and eleven students cannot tell the time with an analogue clock.
Cheryl Quine, a head of department at Cockermouth School and chair of the West Cumbria Network, added that her school discovered that children are having problems telling the time “when some couldn’t read the exam room clock”.
True. We installed digital clocks in the exam hall …
— Mrs Keenan (@MrsKeenan100) March 13, 2018
By the time students reach secondary school it is assumed that they will be able to read a clock face, although in reality this is often not the case, Mr Trobe said.
“It may be a little sad if youngsters coming through aren’t able to tell the time on clock faces,” he said.
“One hopes that we will be teaching youngsters to read clocks, however we can see the benefit of digital clocks in exam rooms.”
Niamh Harris
When in history did people become teenagers, and why is that important? Hey if any one has any answers, I’m ears. Isn’t it time we started asking and knowing these things? Rather than accepting? This stuff is fundamental.
teenager means…… in ones teens… 13…14…15…16…17…18…19..cmon work some shit out for yourself.. we cant hold your hand every step of the way… we are not your mum…..
So before modern education people were considered to be teenagers, during those years?? Can’t say I’ve noted that yet.
Apparently you do know, and can point to it. So go ahead. But since you are going to speak in such a condescending manner, I’ll posit you are an imbecile, has no idea how to understand English, as the question wasn’t “what defines being a teenager”, nor what the word ‘history’ would imply in that sentence.
Presently I can refer to your comment I am replying to as evidence. Of course, that might not ordinarily be true of you, might just be that statement. But then, that lone statement there doesn’t do much to convince differently.
Good point. I’ll rant for those who don’t know what we both probably do.
The idea of a ‘teen-ager’ was the first stepping stone in modern ‘liberal/zionist/marxist’ times to deny a young adult his independence and to extend the recognition of adulthood into an unnaturally old age. Into the 20s — 21 namely. Then came 25 (currently used for insurance and some medical definitions) and then 30. Constructs to deny a young human his adulthood until (s)he is too old to be able to question what the hell happened. I have always abhorred the modern concept of the “teenager”.
Before these “teenagers” came along, we had children and then adults. The difference was how small a space one could fit into. Before the modern “teenager” creation, we briefly did differentiate children from adults, when we decided to recognize that before the balls drop and the boobs grow, maybe we shouldn’t torture humans with manual labor. All (and always) social constructs.
Biologically, a human is an adult by 12-13 and (should be) totally done with puberty by 17-18. The basis of the industrial revolution “legal age” of 18.
By and large, yes. Though I find that less rant.
Good to know there are others out there aware of what is going on, and how it was done. I think I might have emphasised the education role and the community of people from the oligarchical collectivists that rule and fund the creation of the liberal/zionist/marxist/socialist/communist/ fiat currency+central_banking driven capitalism, what ever flavour of collectivism games, one hidden in the other. One collapses to the other, as result, whilst many pretend they options between each other.
Education, especially mandatory, is a the result of centralised, and collectivised power of government that encroaches on people.
Government is, itself, a ‘product of control’. Some what underlined in “The secrets of government and misteries of state plainly laid open, in all the several forms of government in the Christian world” by John Milton (actually sir Walter Raleigh handed over on his deathbed 1618), Esq. (1697)
So bloody much to learn about, that should have been apart of our education as kids.