From the London Daily Telegraph: Schools in Britain are removing their analogue clocks from examination halls because students can’t read them. “Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they were struggling to read the correct time on an analogue clock.”
We don’t doubt the sincerity of the complaints. If the only clock you’ve ever seen is on your smartphone, analogue clocks may seem strange. Why are the numbers in a circle? What do the two little lines mean, and why is one longer than the other? It’s all so confusing!
Evidently clocks can stress out these digital-age youngsters. During exams, explains Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, schools want to make everything “as easy and straightforward as possible. . . . You don’t want [students] to put their hands up to ask how much time is left.”
No, you definitely don’t want that.
Only an educational institution, we reflect, could be so shortsighted as to conclude that it’s easier to remove all the analogue clocks and replace them with digital ones than simply to explain the rudimentary concept on which the former are based. For those schools that haven’t yet spent precious school funds in order not to teach kids how to read a clock, a suggestion. Begin exams with two announcements: First, turn your cell phones off. Second, the big hand means hours; the little hand means minutes.
