Mathematics Phobia Still Haunts School Students In Assam

Mathematics Phobia Still Haunts School Students In Assam

GUWAHATI: A huge number of school students still suffer from the Mathematics phobia syndrome in Assam, thanks to the Education department's lack of initiative to make the subject an interesting one.

Mathematics phobia syndrome means anxiety and fear about one's ability to do mathematics. While many States in the country are either working on plans or implementing plans to make mathematics an interesting, pragmatic and friendlier subject for students, Assam is still clueless on the issue.

Data available with the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) reveals that 50 percent of students fail in HSLC/AHM examinations every year due to in their inability to score even pass marks in mathematics. On other hands, many students even after scoring star marks (75 percent or above) and distinction marks (80 percent or above) in HSLC exams, do not pursue the Science stream at the Higher Secondary level due to their mathematics phobia.

"Mathematics-phobia is quite an old problem and it has been haunting students for several decades. At a time when the education system is witnessing a sea change across the globe through innovation and modernization, it is also time for us to make mathematics more acceptable to students. The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) could play a crucial role on the issue," Mafizuddin Ahmed Hazarika, a teacher of Mathematics in a private school in the city said.

Hazarika said he has come across students who are on the verge of a breakdown following their poor performance in mathematics.

While Assam's students are still faltering on mathematics, math labs are being set up in schools in many States to make mathematics more pragmatic and life-oriented for students.

"The prime objective of the lab is to drive away from the fear of mathematics by making the learning process easier and interesting. The lab uses various educational tools to teach students the basics of circles, triangles, cubes and solve math puzzles in an innovative way," a teacher of Mathematics at Cotton University said.

Math lab has a graph board to enlighten students on the fundamentals of statistics and an overhead projector to help teachers explain the mathematical theories better. The lab is equipped with various modern educational tools and games to enable students to easily and interestingly solve the mathematics puzzles and critical theories.

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