The Reality of Math Education in Indian Schools

Why is Math a Difficult Subject in Schools 

We will cover this issue in detail while dealing with Math education in schools. In brief, they can be summarised as

1. Math is a subject full of abstract concepts, right from pre-school

2. Children in pre-school & primary school are developmentally not ready to understand abstract ideas.

3. The teaching methodology in schools is not suitable since they do not take into account the above aspects.

Professional Development of Teachers

Teachers, at least in India, do not receive training in teaching abstract concepts in either teacher training colleges or in the schools themselves. Hence they resort to teaching math like any other subject - through the traditional methods of chalk, talk, blackboard, textbooks, class work, homework, examinations & report cards.

Most teachers have no training in psychology of children, psychology of learning & recent developments in neuroscience. Hence they do not understand the importance of intrinsic motivation for children to learn. Hence their teaching methods and the classroom processes do not stimulate motivation for learning.

There is very little awareness, even among school leaders & managements, about the difficulties of teaching and learning math. There is constant pressure on teachers, on a daily basis, to complete the curriculum.

Under these circumstances, teachers find it easier to train children in standard computational procedures and make them memorize math facts, procedural rules & definitions.

Hence the reality is that children are unable to grasp math concepts & develop anxiety and even phobia about it. Teachers do not understand how to handle these children and resort to inappropriate classroom & academic processes, which further alienate the children.

In worst case scenarios, teachers use negative techniques like scolding & sarcastic language with children who are unable to understand the math that they teach. This in turn causes math anxiety and pushes children to dislike math.

Parents as Customers

At the same time, due to increasing cost of school education, in many private schools, parents are considered as customers. In many cases their opinions on any changes in the education pattern becomes an important aspect while taking academic decisions.

Even if an odd teacher or a school tries to improve math learning, parents rise against it since the only way they understand math is the way they learnt it in their school days. Many unfortunately also transmit the fear of math they themselves felt as students, to their children.

Educating for the Future

As per educational philosophy, school education is about educating students for living in a world 20 years ahead. Since parents usually do not think that far in terms of educational objectives, it is incumbent on schools to educate parents and get their buy-in for any change.

Many parents arrange for tuitions. The tuition classes are exact replicas of the school classrooms. Since they are judged on the basis of their "results", many of them even resort to unethical practices. Though this may make parents & students happy in the short term, the long term results for the students are not good.

The entire situation is depressing, to say the least.

I have been lucky to be introduced to a different way of understanding and teaching math in the primary school. I relearnt primary math, with a master teacher as I will explain in the next chapter.