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Teaching children how to tell the time by using the "big hand" and the "little hand" used to be a right of passage.

Now it seems it may be a thing of the past as fewer children are able to read an analogue clock, a teacher's union has said.

Classroom clocks are quickly being replaced by digital devices after pupils sitting their exams complained they were struggling to follow the time and see how long they had left.

Deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Malcolm Trobe told The Telegraph: “The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations."

"They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer."

"Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”

The issue was previously discussed on social media with teachers sharing their experience of the developing phenomenon.

Many Twitter users were quick to criticise professionals for resigning themselves to the situation rather than trying harder to teach kids how to read an analog clock.

One user said:"So...teach them? Cuz it’s like...school?"

But others were quick to come to both teachers and the kids' defence.

Tweeter Damon Adams pointed out that times, or methods of telling them, change and that while people once used a sundial to tell the time not many people know how to use them in the 21st century.

He quipped: "Y'all are upset schools not teaching cursive and how to read analogue clocks, but you can read hieroglyphs, or tell time on a sundial?"