[BITList] English teenagers 'are most illiterate in the developedworld', report reveals | Education News | News | The Independent

[HUGH]

Mike,

I live in good old decimalised Scotland, quoth a chap, scoffing at the 
"English" 12 times table.  I did them to 12 and had it drummed into me and 
it's still there. When I joined John G Kincaid in Greenock in 1949 I entered 
a decimalised phase - they built B&W Danish engines. When I started evening 
classes I had to relearn the duodecimal system, so I was decimal during the 
day and duodecimal at night.  When I joined Scotts in Greenock I went back 
to duodecimal, drawing scales 1" to a foot, etc, and when I moved to Denmark 
I went back to 1:10 etc.

Back in the 60s/70s a friend taught engineering at university level here, 
and he complained too many of the student input were hopeless at basic 
arithmetic and algebra, so it's not a new phenomenon.

Hugh.