Online classes: Teachers worry over kids slyly using calculators

With the resumption of online classes, teachers are complaining that students are banking too heavily on digital calculators to do their sums.

Mathematics needs practice to ace it. But even middle schoolers are using calculators for simple addition and multiplication, teachers say.

“If this continues, our future generation will lack growth in cognitive and intellectual development,” says Chandrakala M L, primary school teacher, explaining how learning numbers is useful and essential to everyone.

“The left side of our brain is wired to read, write, calculate, analyse and solve complex problems. If they are dependent on a gadget, they will never be able to realise their potential,” she explains.

Children these days are struggling with single digit multiplication tables, says Sandhya T C, private tutor. “Small children are so used to solving multiplication sums on the calculator that they are struggling to memorise even tables from one to 10,” she says.

She observes this was not the case before the pandemic. “This will only slow down their problem solving and time-management skills,” she laments.

Teachers have noticed that many students turn off their cameras during tests to use mobile calculators to solve problems. “It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure that their kids don’t use calculators,” says Chandrakala.

We will lose potential great mathematicians, physicists and scientists if this trend continues, she warns.

Only ninth and tenth graders should be allowed to use manual calculators, not anyone below that, according to Aloysius D’Mello, principal of a private school on Sarjapur road. “If they aren’t learning basic skills, it will impact them greatly when they are back to learning from school,” he says.

Teachers have additional challenges when they teach mathematics online. “They have to check if everyone is
paying attention and attend to multiple questions from children,” he observes.