Math phobia: How the problems added up in Nagaland

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, Oct. 11: For the average Naga students in school, the mere mention of mathematics provokes dread. Just the thought of applying various math formulae to solve problems (complex or otherwise) sends most students into fright.

On this year’s Teachers’ Day, the advisor to School Education, KT Sukhalu had gone on record saying ‘high school teachers struggle with teaching students because most of the students have weak elementary foundation. This gives Nagaland the dubious distinction of having a weak academic base.’

According to him, the ‘poor performance’ of Nagaland schools – especially in the subjects of in mathematics and science – was not encouraging and ‘very much below the national average.’

“The annual status of education report 2017 says that only 30.4% of students in the age group 14-18 years in Nagaland can successfully do simple division arithmetic as against the national average of 43.1%. Calculation and evaluation can be managed by only 37.7% of the children compared to the national average of 50%,” he had revealed.

During a concentrated interview conducted by Eastern Mirror with mathematics teachers, the most common concern identified by the latter was the ‘phobia of math’ instilled among the students at the elementary stage.

This fear, according to the teachers, is injected by the elders in particular. The idea of math as a tough subject implanted during a student’s early years has created the phobia of math, and students grow up considering it a ‘curse’, according to the teachers.

The teachers also cited lack of sincerity and curiosity among the students. However, it was suggested that the students were not entirely at fault, as ‘learning itself is not made interesting.’

According to the principal of Christian Higher Secondary School Dimapur, S Moatemsu Walling, mathematics should not scare students but generate curiosity and love of numbers. He suggested introducing math labs in schools to take the subject outside classrooms and make it interesting.

The school’s math teachers, Sandip N Dutta and Bithan Chakraborty who have been teaching for more than 20 years, observed that the received idea that math was a ‘tough’ subject makes it harder for students.

They asserted that Naga students are ‘necessarily not weak’ in the subject but lack of interest ‘and more importantly the idea instilled by the elders that the subject is tough’ makes it difficult to generate interest among the students.

“Mathematics was like a curse because from the students’ foundation, the fear was instilled and this curse needs to be removed for the coming generation,” said Chakraborty.

An assistant professor at Tetso College in Dimapur, Monjit Roy who has been teaching the subject for 10 years, was of the view that ‘the weak foundation’ has left students detesting the subject. Citing an example, he said even if Naga students pursue science after matriculation, they do not choose math, which is an optional paper. “This affects them when they reach degree course,” he said.

According to Roy, the ‘teaching-learning process’ should be a two-way, where both should contribute through concerted effort and ‘the government should support the subject instead of the clemency practised in the High School Leaving Certificate examination’ so that students give the subject more importance.

Manoj Bhattacharjee, the principal of Pranab Vidyapith Higher Secondary School (PVHSS), Dimapur told Eastern Mirror that when they started the secondary level with Commerce stream there were no enrolments of Naga student but at present, the numbers were considerable.

However, Bhattacharjee said that Naga parents were spending around INR 3000 per month on math tuition for their children.

During the second session of the Thirteenth Nagaland Legislative Assembly in September, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had disclosed that 99 government schools in Nagaland had no teachers for mathematics and science.

On this, Bhattacharjee said ‘there was no production of teachers for math and science subject in the state because most of them work for a couple of months in private schools and leave for jobs in the government sector while those who are capable work outside the state.’

The principal shared an instance where a school in Tening under Peren district had to bring in three teachers from Maharashtra for some few months to teach math because there was no one else to teach the students there!