We are teaching children maths they will never use. Isn’t it better to help them speak fluently? | Simon Jenkins

The education secretary is right to focus on what students need most: the ability to express themselves. As for maths, grab a calculator At last the fourth R is born. Articulation – speaking – is to join reading, writing and arithmetic in the education canon. What has become the mighty struggle against the dictatorship of the screen can begin in earnest. The spoken word, human-to-human communication, must finally be recognised by the gods of reactionary schooling. The pundits call it oracy. On