The calculator ban will come in from 2014, the Department for Education said CALCULATORS are to be banned from maths tests for 11-year-olds.  The move comes amid concerns by ministers that primary school pupils rely on them too much.

The ban will come in from 2014, the Department for Education said.  It will affect Sats tests taken in the final year of primary school.  Education minister Elizabeth Truss said that all pupils should know their times tables, and be able to add, subtract and divide.  “By banning calculators in the maths test, we will reduce the dependency on them for the most basic sums,” she said.  “While maths is all around us, it seems to have become acceptable to be ‘bad with numbers’.  “The habit of simply reaching for the calculator to work things out only serves to worsen that problem.”