Saturday, May 31, 2008

Indian Students, Teachers, and Stream of Studies in Upper Secondary (part 1)

Albert Einstein credited India for her contribution to Mathematics. Arya Batta, an Indian mathematician, was one of those invented 'pi'. Indians were first to discover steel, to solidify sugarcane juice many others.
The first Asian to win a noble prize for physics was an Indian from Tamil Nadu.
While our ancestors had contributed extensively to Science and Mathematics the situation is diffrent in Malaysia.
Many Indian students have negative attitude towards Mathematics. Many have impression that mathematics is a difficult subject, then worst still when comes to additional mathematics at form four and five and mathematics at form six. The situation is worsen by many Indian teachers in the secondary schools. They enhance the phobia towards mathematics telling the students not to go to science stream as it is difficult. Many of the secondary school Indian teachers are arts graduates whom I believe they themselves were not good in mathematics while they were in schools. They pass on the phobia to this present generation.
Many average students think mathematics is a reading subject, where memory is tested but mathematics not only test ones memory but also intelligence. Many Indian students do not practise mathematics at home at all. They do not do home work more then what the teachers had given them.
Practice of Mathematics increases thinking skills, which not only increases a students problem solving ability later in his or her live but also builds higher order thinking skill and patience.
In my observation, I found out that many successful Indians who were with lower level of formal education but were good at mathematics at at least in addition, substraction , multiplication and division. They do not use calculators.

1 comment:

gerard_raj said...

Are qualified teachers teaching in the science stream. I don't think so. One of my friend who was in the arts stream during his school days is pursuing a degree in chemistry at upsi. Can he teach pure science subjects. How do you expect a 'c' grader for science in from three teach chemistry. Who is at fault? This is just one example. And you know something, his score is three and above. Doesn't it sound like a joke.there is something wrong with nus unitesities. .