IT’S HEARTWARMING to see the Mathematical Sciences Foundation (MSF) of St. Stephen’s College introduce its resource centers in some Delhi schools to make learning maths fun. These centers help students soak up mathematical concepts through simple experimental games, instead of the usual calculations and equations. This couldn’t have happened a minute too soon as many students find mathematics unpalatable for reasons that, curiously, they themselves are often unable to explain. And it’s not just mathematics or statistics modals that deter them; almost anything that involves numerological arguments becomes the instant victim of this phobia.
The legion of mathematically ill-prepared students that are churned out of schools and colleges every year has a direct negative impact on the country’s development. Because , if one has problems with maths, it affects the rest of one’s studies. It’s not that there are no good teachers. The school

syllabus just doesn’t allow even the best of teachers to impart much more than straightforward innumeracy to pupils, and subsequently some advanced maths to those who find arithmetic ‘easy’. As a result, many students who are potentially good at complex and abstract mathematics shy away from the subject, because they couldn’t display the basic problem-solving skills taught to 12- and 13-year-olds.
Our educationists need to learn that it takes a whole lot more creativity and lateral thinking to understand advanced mathematical concepts than it does to work with basic linear arithmetic. The immediate casualty of the absence of an effective numeracy curriculum to equip students with the number concepts they’ll need later on in life is children’s imagination. It is this imbalance that the MSF’s programme will hopefully correct.