Kashmiri Poetry: Soliloquy – Writer- Narrator S L Pandita ‘Sagar’ Click Here

Asato Ma Sad Gamaya, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya “Lead me from ignorance to truth Lead me from darkness to light”

---

TEACHING AND LEARNING MATHEMATICS IS AS EASY AS UNCOILING A BALL OF WOOL!

S L PANDITA

---

Open Challenge To Math Scholarship of NCERT

“Who am I?” That is the referral query of the Indian Civilisation. A better question in my opinion should be: How have I spent my time while being cuddled by the safety of the social order? A self- introspection of sorts should guide a person’s thinking as he/she moves in the domain of twilight zone.

A near divine intervention at age 64 put my life upside down and I started to unravel the secret that made understanding mathematics difficult for primary students. The fear of this subject is equally shared by the parents as also by the teachers who teach this subject. The math phobia, I have found deprives the self- confidence of the budding students. The students in rural India simply drop out. The governments at the central and state levels can’t figure out why educating India is such a difficult task? Nobody suspects that: The main enemy is at home (Liebknecht).

The nitty-gritty of basic math originated in India, Iran and Greece. The foundations of mathematics can be traced in these countries. The Europeans never contributed towards development of this subject till they came up with number line and upset the grasp of the number system. The counting, as we know, starts from 1 and measurement from zero. But when the Europeans came up with numbers between zero and one, the foundations of false mathematics were laid. If we divide 9 by 9 we obtain 1. But if we divide 9 by o.9 we get 10! It means 9 refuses the treatment and the field expands linearly acquiring 1 from unknown source and becomes 10. This happens because 0.9 belongs to the field of lengths and not numbers. The absurdity thickens when at class V1, 0>-3 and -3>-8 (page119-NCERT book) is proposed. Hardly do the authors understand that this inequality refers to the thermal scale and not to the field of numbers. This also makes zero a number which is not correct!

In the course of time the NCERT has produced math books which are nothing but a pile of organised chaos. The subject of geometry is outside of the scope of my research.

I approached the HRD Ministry, G.O.I in the month of May 2016 with my tale of woes. But the Shastri Bhawan played possum. So I was forced to come up with a web site to place the causes underlying poor pace of educating Indian masses before the interested parties so that a solution can be found.

I invite teachers, students and parents to write back so that a better understanding about teaching methods can be reached. I must add here that I have worked out an alternative format which will make this humble subject popular and interesting in schools!

A good judgement is more valuable than accomplishment. A bad judgement may reap a windfall. Yet it will remain a bad judgement. Improvement is a matter of opportunity. Let India cease the opportunity!