Some people believe that electronic should not be allowed in school until after the pupils have mastered mental arithmetic. Other believe that calculators save pupils time, especially with complicated calculations.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
More attention should be paid on how to encourage young people to study more about numerical skills. For this reason, obviously electronic calculator should not be allowed in formal education as students have confidence and self-esteem in arithmetic skills, whereas people believe that calculators help student to save time solving math problem, especially complicated calculations. Although using calculators are more efficient, I strongly believe that basic arithmetic skills should be improve without calculator in class.
To build confidence and self-esteem in arithmetic skills, pupils have to learn number without calculator. Pupils must learn from basil level of numeracy to prove themselves academically. School in China, for example, are not allowed students to use calculator in elementary school, alternatively, they are allowed to use abacus as a device in order to help them to solve complicated calculations. Chinese believe that having good skills in calculation retrain and get ahead in life as people life cannot separate with number and calculation. As a result, nearly a hundred percent Chinese students have mastered mental arithmetic, and more than fifty per cent math-olimpiade candidate in the world are Chinese students.
On the other hand, in different cases, student lack of ability with numbers. They need additional times to full fill math assignment although they helped by their private teacher. For example, students in social science in Republic of Jamaica cannon do well in math class. They cannot complete complicated calculation on time even they have the basic level of numeracy. As a result, teachers allow them to use calculator in the class. Although calculators are allowed in the class, Jamaica students draw attention to the advantages of better numeracy.
Ultimately, while using calculator is more efficient for students to solve complicated calculation, it is important to build basic arithmetic skills for students without calculator as an instant device to help them. I personally argue that having ability in numeracy can prove students academically, and keep them confidence at school.
