Are tribal students incapable of learning Mathematics & Science?

Over a decade ago those running the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE) and the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) decided in their wisdom that Mathematics should no longer be made compulsory for passing the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Exam later called the Senior School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) Exam. The reason for this brainwave was because too many students were failing in Mathematics. Instead of carrying out a detailed survey on the reasons for the poor performance of students in the SSLC exams the educational experts took a unilateral decision to make Mathematics non-compulsory. Hence students scoring even single digit marks in Mathematics would pass their SSLC exams. This decision is deeply flawed because it deprives the students of analytical skills. Mathematics helps students to break down a complicated problem into a series of tractable steps. This requires logical thinking.
Mathematics sharpens skills of observance and analysis. Several of the regions and functional areas of the brain that are activated during processing of mathematical statements are strongly involved in visual attention, visual processing, recall and working memory, say educationists. There are certain qualities that are nurtured by mathematics. They include reasoning power, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving ability and even effective communication skills. In our day to day lives we use measures in several aspects such as cooking, stitching, even knitting. We count, subtract, divide, multiply almost unconsciously and yet when it comes to writing an exam in mathematics why do students fare so poorly? If students are not learning mathematics they are naturally switching off a part of their brains. This would naturally result in that part of the brain not being used even in their daily lives. It is common to hear students and even some grown-ups putting up their hands and saying that Mathematics is beyond their ken. But we also have PhDs in Mathematics from among the Khasis. Perhaps we should seek out these gems and ask them to share their experiences on how they managed to scale the heights that their peers and the younger generation today find daunting. Our problem as a society is that we don’t seek out those that can motivate our younger generation to break new paths and scale new heights.
It is interesting to note that amongst the scientists that worked with the Chandrayaan team were quite a number from the North East Regional Institute of Technology (NERIST) in Arunachal Pradesh and a few of those were from Manipur and Assam. As can be expected there were none from Meghalaya. One of the reasons why we perhaps don’t see too many passing the elite civil services is also because most of those who have qualified in these past few years are from the engineering or medical streams. I have hardly met IAS probationers who have come from the pure Arts stream in a long time.
A study on the MBOSE results 2020 revealed that only 12 per cent of students in Meghalaya opted for the Science stream while 7 percent opted for Commerce and a whopping 81 per cent students took up Arts. Can we imagine the disequilibrium in this system? Where will the 81% of students find jobs within the state or even outside it with an unimaginative educational curriculum that does not impart life skills such as communication skills, questioning skills, the skill to problematize issues that cause anxieties in our society?
What is today clubbed as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is a big part of what students need to learn to give themselves a fair chance in the job market since this is a technology driven world. One of the reasons why we are so flawed in our arguments is because we lack mathematical skills. If our students learn early in life to implement mathematical logic, and to read texts analytically, if they learn to argue logically and learn to validate and correct an approach, organize their thoughts and engage in data management they can graduate to project management, personal and collective finance and to entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy. As we can see these are very much wanting in our tribal societies. In fact our education system is depriving our young ones of this huge ocean of learning.
Learning mathematics makes learning the sciences and technology easier. A scientific culture is a culture of constantly questioning and discovering. It helps develop creativity and makes students sharper in their ability to link environment protection by changing their daily habits which harm the environment such as plastic use or the reckless cutting down of trees or even the critical need to conserve rivers.
Somehow the STEM subjects are assumed to be “difficult” subjects. But that’s where teaching skills come in. The next question for Meghalaya is how many really qualified Mathematics teachers do we have? When more than half the class fails in Mathematics do we blame the students or the teacher? Are the current crop of Mathematics teachers using appropriate strategies to reach out to the last person in the classroom; the listless child; the child who comes from a home that cannot afford tuition; or the child that suffers from malnutrition and therefore has poor cognitive abilities? Teaching strategies cannot be stuck in the mud. They need to be experimental and adjust to the needs of the students. Taking local examples while teaching mathematics and science works best instead of using western concepts. Taking students out for nature rambling achieves much more than classroom-bound teaching.
Our classrooms must be redesigned to do away with the top-down approach. There has to be enough time for discussions and clarifying doubts. A student should not go out of the class with doubts in his/her mind. Asking questions is not impudence or impertinence. It means the student is curious. A good teacher should instead welcome questions because it shows that the student’s curiosity is piqued and that he/she has an interest in the subject.
It is good to know that the present Education Minister is thinking of revisiting the present education system and to once again make Mathematics compulsory. This would be a great step forward for our future generation. We need scientific minds to build this state. We cannot allow half-baked ideas to drive the vision of Meghalaya. This state deserves better and that will only come when we have more curious and enquiring minds as legislators and bureaucrats. Meghalaya must work at democratizing access to the STEM subjects and give everyone an equal opportunity to innovate. Educational modelling is much needed as it makes difficult subjects much easier to understand.
What must also be understood here is that while engaging teachers we should be looking for the best and the most skilled in teaching. It is here that “Reservation” becomes a minus point. From experience I know for a fact that some people are just not cut out for teaching but they are there because of the quota system. I know this is a sore point but we have to make a choice. Should we give a go by to a good and well experienced teacher only because that person is not a tribal? There are several students who have passed out in the 1970’s and 1980’s and were taught Mathematics by the best teachers in their colleges (irrespective of community). They ended up doing their management courses in the best institutions in the country. Isn’t this also one of the prime reasons why most parents who can afford to, now opt to send their kids to schools in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi etc? So the only kids that are deprived of good mathematics and science education are those whose parents cannot afford better.
As a state we are doing a great disservice to our students! This has to change!