The graph illustrates the proportions of 13-year-old students possessing calculators and those who had utilized them at school across six countries in 1991.
Overall, there were substantial differences in both calculator ownership and usage among the selected states, with France showed the highest percentages in both categories and Korea exhibited the lowest.
In terms of students’ possession of calculator, France recorded the highest percentage with almost 98%, followed by Israel and Hungary at around 95% and 87%, respectively. In contrast, Korean schoolchildren witnessed the lowest ownership rate of merely 20%, while the figures for Taiwan and Ireland were relatively similar with more than 55% of pupils owning a calculator.
Regarding the application of calculators, France again led with about 95% of 13-year-old schoolchildren having used calculators in school. Hungary, Taiwan and Israel followed, with approximately 70%, 62% and 50%, respectively. Ireland witnessed a quarter of eighth graders who had ever used calculators at school, while the figure for Korea was by far the lowest with less than 5%.