It has always been a complete mystery to me how it is that anyone who supposed they knew the rudiments of teaching mathematics can ever have imagined that the full range of multiplication tables could be learned whenever the fancy took the teacher or the pupil.
Without these feats of memory retention which are lifelong and which can recall in a millisecond what would otherwise take time to calculate, any advance forward in problem solving arithmetic is just made slower and more difficult. It is also potentially boring. I was taught all my tables up to twelve times at the age of six. It took two weeks to master them and answer questions correctly at random, like 7 X 8 = 56 (and not 54) and at the time it was not considered special. That was during WWII and the process took place in the cellar beneath the school most of the time, as the area was under constant bombardment from VI flying bombs. There was a single light bulb which flickered with the explosions which thudded and crumped all around and a bucket for a toilet.
It seems extraordinary that it is now even necessary to ‘require’ all students to reach my six year old standard when they reach eleven, yes eleven. I would start by testing the teachers. And while you are about it the ministers too. And maybe the mandarins, where you could begin at the Treasury.