Special Report

New maths learning fever sweeping India

A maths teaching-learning revolution led by supplementary maths education entrepreneurs offering hands-on pedagogies such as the abacus, Vedic maths, and traditional Indian games, is spreading countrywide from Chennai, the maths capital of the country. Summiya Yasmeen reports

What’s the total of 13+14-22+16+18? For Tejas Suresh (9), a class V student of Florence High School, Bangalore, that’s a no-brainer. The answer (39) is verbally delivered in less than five seconds. This question is followed by a more testing conundrum: 345+670-240+352+110? Just as he did while nimbly computing the first sum, Tejas focuses, moves his tiny fingers simulating the counting of beads, and pronounces the correct reply (1,237) in 10 seconds.

Two years ago, Tejas required a pencil, paper and eraser and several minutes to do such sums. But that was before he signed up for a supplementary maths learning programme with the Aloha India Centre, Bangalore. A subsidiary of Aloha International, a Malaysia-based mental arithmetic teaching academy, the Aloha India Centre, housed in a leafy suburb (Kumara Park) of the garden city is one of the 600 Aloha centres in India which uses the abacus (an ancient Chinese learning frame with beads strung on wires) to teach children to do maths exercises including subtraction, addition, multiplication and division, with miraculous speed. Since his initiation into the abacus way of mental gymnastics, Tejas visualises the abacus in his mind’s eye and displays astonishing speed in processing numbers.

But given that he has already won the Aloha International Mental Arithmetic Competitions held in Malaysia (2005) and China (2006), besting contestants from 13 countries including the US, Oman, China and Malaysia, this Bangalore-based boy wonder is quite obviously a maths genius. Yet even if not with the same speed and accuracy, an estimated 80,000 students are learning supplementary maths the abacus way in Aloha India’s 600 centres sited in all 29 states of the Indian Union, wowing teachers and parents with their computation skills. However Aloha India centres are just a small number among thousands of new maths learning hotspots that have mushroomed in India’s A, B and C cities.

UCMas Mental Arithmetic, Chennai which also offers abacus-based maths learning programmes, boasts 1,260 centres with an aggregate enrollment of 155,000 students. Likewise in Chennai the SIP Academy which offers abacus-based courses under the Brain Gym brand name, has thus far trained 35,000 students in 300 learning centres across 17 states. Ideal Play Abacus runs 350 centres with 40,000 students countrywide and Smart Brain has 25 centres with 1,100 students.

All these enterprises offering supplementary maths learning programmes (including Aloha) have their head offices in Chennai, undoubtedly the maths capital of India. And out of Chennai (aka Madras), a quiet but powerful new maths teaching-learning revolution is spreading out to the rest of the country.

Maths learning in schools across the country is also experiencing a metamorphosis. Teachers are becoming increasingly aware that they need to innovate to teach maths effectively. Be it by way of teaching abacus calculus, Egyptian or Vedic maths or through the establishment of maths labs, progressive schools are starting to go beyond monotonous textbooks in favour of new, interesting and hands-on ways of teaching this ancient subject. This is happening because society as a whole is becoming aware of the critical importance of maths learning which is intimately linked with personal and national development.

"In Indian society, where poverty and class limit social mobility, technical expertise which is impossible without a strong maths foundation is highly valued. Unfortunately because of the rigid manner in which this mentally stimulating subject has hitherto been taught, many children develop a maths phobia. Therefore it’s important that maths is taught in innovative ways that make it fun to learn. Schools and particularly maths teachers, need to learn go beyond regimented textbooks and learn concepts from the new generation of maths providers," says Dr. S.N. Gananath, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science and former maths teacher at the Rishi Valley School, and a well-known Bangalore-based maths educator and innovator. A fellow of Bill Drayton’s globally famous Ashoka Foundation, Gananath promoted Suvidya, an NGO in 1994 to teach maths creatively, and has helped over 500 schools in urban and rural areas build low-cost maths labs.

A recent survey conducted by Suvidya in rural Karnataka indicates there is widespread maths phobia not only in the student community but also among teachers and parents. Most teachers admitted they were intimidated by the subject in their childhood because their maths teachers inflicted punishment, encouraged rote learning and used uninspiring maths learning pedagogies.

"Teachers are the key to changing the way maths is taught in schools. New pedagogies stress that maths learning is not about computation but comprehension. Teachers need to minimise use of textbooks in favour of worksheets, models, puzzles, games and other teaching aids. And the new maths teaching revolution should start in primary school because that’s when young children develop maths phobia which accentuates in higher classes. Maths is — and has to be taught — as a happy and enjoyable subject," adds Gananath who has also conducted over 200 training workshops for maths teachers across the country.

Against this backdrop, middle class India, which values maths proficiency as critical to cracking all-India entrance exams such as CAT/ IIT-JEE, success in which is the prerequisite of entry into the IITs and best engineering colleges and best jobs in the newly emergent economy, has pressed the panic button.

The maths teaching-learning revolution led by private sector maths education companies which is spreading countrywide from Chennai, is the entrepreneurial response. These rapidly multiplying supplementary maths education companies use alternative, hands-on teaching methods such as the abacus, Vedic maths and traditional Indian games, to cure maths phobia and put children at ease with numbers and numbers crunching. Currently an estimated 1 million children aged between four-13 years are enrolled in outside-of-school programmes offered by over 30 maths/ arithmetic learning companies founded by responsive entrepreneurs who prefer the franchise business model. For instance India’s largest supplementary maths education tuition company — the Chennai-based UCMas Mental Arithmetic India — has 1,250 franchise centres in 250 cities with an enrollment of 155,000 children.

Within this new genre of maths teaching enterprises, the most popular are learning centres which use the tried, tested and proven ancient Chinese abacus methodology to teach calculus. "Maths has its origins in arithmetic which comprises four basic operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Because of indifferent teaching, children seldom have a good foundation in these basic operations and find maths difficult. At SIP Academy we use the abacus, which is essentially a calculator comprising colourful beads, to teach arithmetic. Children gradually learn to mentally visualise the abacus and do fast cognitive calculations using quick finger movements. However together with abacus maths, we also teach a set of exercises called Brain Gym, designed by Dr. Paul Dennison of Edu-K, USA. Another programme, AMAL — Accelerated Mental Learning — is for children aged four-six. Our courses are conducted on weekends and are taught at eight levels, each of three-four months duration. The outcome of our supplementary maths teaching programmes has been excellent. Most of our students top their classes in mathematics," says Dinesh Victor, the Chennai-based managing director of SIP Academy India Pvt Ltd which has licensed 300 franchised centres across the country.

An alumnus of IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad who put in an eight-year stint in industry with several blue-chip corporates, Victor was very impressed by the abacus maths learning pedagogy promoted by Kelvin Thamm, who founded the SIP Academy in Indonesia and Malaysia in 1997. SIP Academy is now active in over seven countries tutoring 150,000 students. In 2002 Victor signed an agreement with SIP Academy SDN BHD, Malaysia and promoted its first Indian affiliate in Chennai. Since then SIP has experienced rapid growth and currently numbers 35,000 students on the rolls of its 300 franchise centres.

Converts to abacus driven maths learning methodologies are convinced that they not only improve mathematical prowess, but also integrate the functions of the neocortex and limbic segments of the brain, and arouse the dormant or under-utilised learning skills of children. "It’s scientifically proven that learning on the abacus stimulates both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, sharpening the cognitive skills of children. In addition, maths learning the abacus way improves concen-tration, listening ability, analysis and visualisation skills thus enhancing children’s general ability to learn, retain and recall," avers Gita Mohan, the Bangalore-based executive director of Aloha India’s Karnataka operations. A homemaker who became a franchisee of the Chennai-based Aloha India in 2004, Mohan together with co-director Pallavi Ram has supervised the growth of Aloha learning centres in Karnataka to 80, including 28 in Bangalore.

Although abacus pedagogies seem to be riding the crest of the supplementary maths education boom, Vedic mathematics which has its origins in ancient India, is also becoming increasingly popular. Vedic mathematics was rediscovered between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). According to Tirthaji, the 16 sutras of the Vedas can solve most arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry sums. This is endorsed by Mumbai-based Dhaval Bathia, a Vedic maths trainer/ educator and author of Vedic Maths Made Easy (Jaico Publishers). "In India’s schools there is greater emphasis on teaching maths processes rather than explaining their logic. Vedic maths offers numerous techniques by which calculations can be done quickly and easily. For instance if you have to calculate 35x35, you need to remember that any two-digit number ending with 5 multiplied by itself is 25. One then multiplies the first digit of the number with the digit which comes after it — in this case 3x4=12. If this answer is placed before 25, the number you get is 1,225 which is the answer to 35x35. Students find these calculation techniques magical and fascinating. It’s a whole new approach to doing maths," enthuses Bathia who in the past five years has conducted 370 workshops in schools in India, Kuwait and Dubai.

Likewise Gaurav Tekriwal of the Kolkata-based Vedic Maths Forum has acquainted over 7,000 students in the city of joy’s Delhi Public, St. James and Birla High schools with high speed Vedic maths. Tekriwal says that initially schools were resistant, but their attitude changed once students began solving complex three-digit multiplication problems in less than five seconds. "Vedic maths is much more systemised, coherent, intuitive and faster than modern mathematics. Once we began training students in calculations according to techniques mentioned in the 16 sutras, maths phobics become maths lovers. Solving sums became eureka moments for them! This paradigm attitudinal shift amazed school principals and teachers. Now we are flooded with requests to do workshops in schools," says Tekriwal.

Adds R.P. Jain, the Delhi-based vice president of the World Academy for Vedic Mathematics: "Entry into the world of Vedic maths is like entering Alice’s wonderland, where logic is turned upside down. A student can do a division sum through the process of multiplication and addition and multiplication problems can be solved by cross subtraction or cross additions. Moreover the methodologies can be easily explained." (see box).

Innovative maths educators are also digging deep into India’s 5,000-year-old history and traditions to rediscover and adapt games and puzzles and make mathematical formulae and calculus easily understandable. For instance Chennai-based entrepreneur and maths lover Vinita Sidhartha founded Kreeda (‘play’ in Sanskrit), in 2002, with the objective of researching and reviving traditional Indians games as learning methodologies. Thus far Kreeda has created 22 mind-testing games using environment friendly materials.

"Our aim is to help children understand math concepts through play. For instance the traditional board game of Pallankuzhi is a popular maths learning tool. With its varying difficulty levels, it teaches counting, banking and saving. Likewise Paramapadam i.e snakes and ladders, teaches maths concepts like addition and subtraction. Kreeda’s maths manuals explain how teachers/ parents can use these games to teach basic maths," says Sidhartha, a journalism postgraduate of the University of Texas who has also conducted over 50 workshops to introduce teachers to Kreeda’s maths learning values. Currently over 30 schools across the country use Kreeda games to improve maths learning.

Similarly the pioneer Ramanujan Math Education Centre (named after the country’s mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920)) in Chennai has invented a colourful and child-friendly maths learning kit. The brainchild of the legendary curator-director of the centre, the late P.K. Srinivasan, the kit consists of puzzles, models, games and other materials which teachers can use in classrooms to teach mathematical concepts.

"In most schools maths is taught through rote memorisation and repetition of formulae. We advocate hands-on, activity-based teaching of maths. Our learning kit is currently being used by over 300 schools across the country. We have also conducted over 47 workshops nationally and trained 2,500 teachers. User schools have reported radical improvement in their students learning outcomes after they introduced our activity-based approach to maths," says Meena Sureshan, honorary director of the Ramanujan Museum and Math Education Centre and principal of the CBSE affiliated Kavi Bharthi Vidyalaya, Chennai.

Comments Avanti Bir, principal of the CBSE affiliated Ramniranjan Podar School in Mumbai, which set up a maths lab in 2004: "The idea behind this directive is to encourage children to apply mathematical concepts and learn by doing. For instance one can use a simple piece of paper to fold and display geometrical shapes like squares, circles, cones etc, or when learning a concept like sq. ft students can physically measure the area of their classroom. The maths lab has certainly made a difference. Not only do students understand the subject better, but through experimentation and verification they are more confident about tackling mathematical problems."

The investment required to set up maths labs is flexible. The Delhi-based toy firm Creatives provides maths labs to schools for Rs.8,000. According to Dr. S.N. Gananath, director of Suvidya which has helped over 500 private and government schools in urban and rural India to build maths labs, establishment costs can be as low as Rs.750. The Suvidya maths learning kit, which comprises over 50 items including models, charts, games and puzzles, can be used to set up a fully-fledged maths lab. (see box)

According to monitors of the generally depressing education scenario, the flurry of maths learning activity countrywide is not unconnected with the poor showing of Indian students in international and national maths exams and tests. A survey conducted recently by Educational Initiatives, an Ahmedabad-based education research organisation which tested 32,000 students from 142 of the country’s top private schools, indicated that Indian students lag behind their counterparts in the US, Britain and Japan in maths and science learning outcomes. "One of the most significant findings of the study was the poor performance of Indian students compared with the average performance of students in 43 countries. Across the sample of 11 questions in maths and science, our class IV students performed below international average in all of them," says the report. For instance for the question: Which number is closest to 423.1? over 60 percent class IV students ticked 4231, instead of 423. "Most students simply ignored the decimal point and chose 4231 which is in fact the farthest from 423.1," reveals the report.

Even as the fast-growth Indian economy is experiencing an unprecedented shortage of skilled personnel at all levels, there’s growing awareness that the need for a maths literate student population goes beyond doing well in school and board exams. Maths is a life skill which requires application in everyday life. And at the higher level, maths proficiency is required in all areas of research and development and industry including engineering, production, information technology and the space sciences. Despite being heir to a rich legacy in maths (Aryabhatta (476-550 AD) discovered the zero), post-independence India’s education system has not succeeded in developing this endowment. Perhaps the only mathematical genius of world repute that India produced in the 20th century was Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), an entirely self-taught mathematician who made substantial contributions to the analytical theory of numbers.

"Apart from the obvious application of maths in everyday life, maths proficiency is critical to advanced research and development in the sciences, economics, business management, and technology. There is no way we can become leaders in the emerging global knowledge economy if we neglect maths education at the school and tertiary education levels. Maths proficiency is intricately related to economic development and technology innovation. A lackadaisical attitude to maths learning explains why we are not innovators and creators, but mere users of technology. Indians are traditionally supposed to be good at maths. But we have lost this advantage by letting China among several other nations, overtake us. To remedy this untenable situation, we need to embrace more contemporary maths teaching pedagogies and inspire children to love the subject rather than fear it," says Dr. Sanjeev Agarwal, an alumnus of Oxford University and head of the maths department at Delhi’s well-known St. Stephen’s College. Agarwal is also deputy director of the Mathematical Sciences Foundation (MSF), a charitable trust which has promoted Sahayog, an initiative for improving maths teaching in schools.

The sudden mushrooming of a plethora of privately promoted supplementary maths education companies in southern India from where they have extended their reach countrywide through the franchising model — and enthusiastic middle class response to them — is indicative of a new awareness of the importance of maths proficiency in the emerging global marketplace. But perhaps the most refreshing aspect of the maths learning revolution sweeping across the subcontinent is the growing acknowl-edgement that learning the exact science that is mathematics can be a joyous, stimulating and satisfying experience.

Suddenly there’s a distinct possibility that within India’s high-potential classrooms, mass maths phobia may soon become history. Indian mathematicians who dazzled the world with their numbers gymnastics and maths innovations from ancient times right upto the 16th century, may well begin to do so again.

With Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai); Autar Nehru (Delhi); Moushumi Dutia (Kolkata) & Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)