Imphal: The government on Friday launched a major campaign to make mathematics and science popular throughout the country.
A media workshop was organised here at Press Club organised by Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
It is part of activities of National Mathematics Year (2012-13) being observed to mark the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s 125th birth anniversary.
Mathematics teaching has been reduced to ‘does’ and ‘don’t’ without letting the students grasp a fuller understanding of the concepts, said Huidrom Jayantkumar Singh, former head of department of Mathematics, D M College of Science and President, Manipur Mathematical Society.
He bemoaned that the faulty approach to teaching mathematics by focussing on problem-solving was responsible for maths phobia suffered by students.
This is one subject in which maximum number of students fail in the examinations. It is the most unpopular, rather most-feared subject among students.
Dr Subodh Mahanti, senior scientist, Vigyan Prasar, said, ‘The idea behind these workshops/seminars was to highlight the importance of mathematics in understanding the secrets of nature and solving practical problems, and to make people aware of India’s mathematical heritage.’
‘Mathematics is used as a universal language and tool for any quantitative research in all the sciences. Fundamental mathematical questions also arise out of these research topics. One of India’s greatest contributions to mathematics is the number ‘zero’ and the decimal system, which established the modern way of writing numbers,’ he added.
Dr Mohanti said during 2013, a number of activities are proposed to be undertaken under a wide umbrella of initiatives called the International Year of Mathematics of the Planet Earth (MPE-2013).
The idea behind MPE-2013 is to focus on mathematical research in areas of relevance to the various processes that affect the Earth.
Nimish Kapoor, scientist with the Vigyan Prasar, said besides producing films and radio programmes, publishing books on popular science topics, Vigyan Prasar has been involved in different popularisation activities.
It has set up a network of science clubs across the country and was involved in science and mathematics popularisation among school students and the common people.
Speaking about science and mathematics writing, he felt that science writers and journalists should use simple language and avoid jargons when writing for lay audiences. (UNI)
