24th January 2012

Almost a third of children aged between 10 and 12 can’t add two small sums of money without using a calculator, a new survey has revealed.

Around a third can’t do division or basic algebra while half don’t know what a noun is or can’t identify an adverb, and almost a third can’t use apostrophes correctly.

Yet despite their struggles, the pressures of modern life mean most of today’s parents only manage to spend fewer than 10 minutes a day helping their children learn, according to online tuition service, mytutor, which commissioned the survey.

Nick Smith, head of online tuition at mytutor, said: “Maths and English are key skills for children as they enter secondary school, yet our study shows that many are already slipping behind their peers and could be lacking confidence.

“Despite half of parents thinking their children aren’t as good as they were at the same age, most parents only manage to spend fewer than 10 minutes a day reading with them, helping them with homework or doing educational activities at home.

“Addressing these shortcomings early can make an enormous difference to a child’s school career, with tutored children generally making more than a year’s worth of progress with just 20 hours of tuition.”

mytutor surveyed 1,000 children aged between 10 and 12 and found that one in four didn’t know their times tables, a quarter couldn’t use decimal points and two in five can’t spell simple plurals.

Among the survey’s findings:

• 27% couldn’t add £2.36 and £1.49 to get £3.85
• 22% couldn’t use the correct version of they’re / there / their in a sentence
• 31% couldn’t pick the correct use of an apostrophe from three simple sentences
• 42% couldn’t spell the word “secretaries” correctly
• 36% couldn’t divide 415 by 5
• 25% didn’t know the answer to 7 x 6

The survey then asked parents about their attitude towards supporting their children’s learning at home, and found:

• 48% think their child is worse at maths than they were at the same age
• 36% felt their child’s English was worse than theirs was at the same age
• 39% spend less time learning with their children than their parents did a generation ago – with only 30% spending more time
• 59% of parents spend less than an hour a week (eight and a half minutes a day) learning with their children, with 20% spending less than 30 mins a week.

Mr Smith added: “Hectic modern lifestyles are leaving parents with less and less time to spend learning with their children – whether that is helping with homework or other educational activities.

“Many think that their child’s learning is suffering as a result, yet fewer than one in 10 of the parents we asked had used private tuition to give their children a boost to their learning – with many citing travelling time and a lack of suitable local tutors as reasons.”

mytutor offers tailored online one-to-one tuition in English and maths for children aged between seven and 14.

Parents can choose a UK-based tutor, who then provides tailored tuition in a safe, engaging online environment based around a live interactive whiteboard – all in the comfort of their own home.

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