Our brain is built in a way that
it can concentrate on one thing at a time. So when trying to learn
to handle a manual gearbox and learn to navigate in a traffic
communication system, then it's going to take a lot of
time.
It's much easier and therefor quicker and
cheaper to learn with an automatic gearbox car.
If you
really need to then you can always learn to handle the manual
gearbox any time you want (before the exams or when you already
have a driving licence. In this case you will only spend one or few
lesson on manual gearbox.