Call for back to basics

I see over the weekend that Ms Parata, our Minister of Education is  calling for a return to basic arithmetic in schools. She knows this sort of statement gets parents attention and I can't help but feel it is nicely timed to divert attention from all the other issues we face in education at the moment. Most parents will know thank goodness that we still help our children to learn basic maths facts its just that we also help them to think about what they are doing and solve problems. Learning how to do algorithms - long division and multiplication with 5 to 6 digits isn't a focus until later in their Primary years when they are confident in working with numbers. We still believe fluency of basic facts helps in solving all mathematical problems.