This petition was submitted during the 2015–2017 Conservative government

Petition Scrap plans for children to be tested on times tables as part of their KS2 Sats.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced that pupils will be subjected to yet more relentless testing as they'll be expected to know all tables up to 12x12, with the skill being measured using a new examination to be rolled out in 2017.

More details

Jo Boaler, professor of maths education at Stanford University, believes getting children to be tested in this way will increase maths anxiety.

She said that although some children were fine with timed tests, others weren't. But she said the message of timed tests was that being able to memorise things quickly was the same thing as being good at maths.

“Governments saying everybody has to memorise their times tables to 12x12 is absolutely disastrous," she added.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

860 signatures

Show on a map

10,000