Harish Sharma
Mathematics is a part of our glorious heritage and it is in the fitness of things that we keep up to our old traditions of excellence in this field. Mathematics as a discipline has grown very fast in the last twenty-five years and has become an essential component of all sciences. The rapid use of mathematics at different levels of our development makes it all the more necessary to have a critical appraisal of mathematics education in our country
Inservice training programmes are probably more important than pre-service programmes. In the pre-service programmes, the prospective teacher learns about teaching, while in the class-room, the beginning teacher learns how to teach. Inservice education for teachers consists of those programmes of professional study in which teachers are involved after they are actively employed. If the educational enterprise is to be fully effective, it is imperative that teachers be involved in inservice activities on a regular and continuing basis. Many teachers need to change their teaching either in style or in content, or in both. Increased knowledge boosts confidence.At present there is dire need of mathematics teachers, who understand students and communicate with them well, who would lead the students to the powerful goals of independence and self-esteem, who will provide moral and intellectual models for their students. The need for teacher-training is apparent
Teachers have to be actively involved in inservice activities and not to passive recepients. A training programme has to provide support in bringing out the best in an individual teacher. Also, one has to remember that teachers are professionals capable of solving their own problems. You cannot change a teacher, all you can do is to create an environment in which change is possible.
The last few decades have seen the rapid expansion of primary, secondary, higher-secondary, college and university education without proper preparation in terms of personnel infrastructure and with paucity of funds. This has brought in enormous deterioration in the standards of mathematics instruction at all levels. The need for teacher training programmes today is recognized more than ever before.
. State units called ‘SIE’ have been set up to do the job in the respective States. Further, ‘District Institute of Education and Training (DIET)’ have been set up to take care of respective districts. Some of these are doing good work. All categories of schools are covered under these programmes,
One rampant malady afflicting the J&K educational set-up is the wide-spread practice of private tuitions by school teachers. It makes the teacher less than whole-hearted in class-teaching and completely averse to spending any time on training programmes as time is money for him. Particularly at the higher secondary level the situation is becoming worse day by day because of the importance students attach to the entrance examinations for the medicine and engineering courses. The business of private tuitions is flourishing and is becoming more and more lucrative. Even in some of the very prestigious schools, at the plus two level, students are just not going to the classes and the teachers are just not interested in teaching (in class!). Instead, coaching-classes are flooded for which the students pay heavy fees and the teachers are teaching in coaching-schools where they are handsomely paid. Of what relevance is any training programme under such circumstances. Another reason why we have not been able to derive maximum benefit from our training programmes seems to lie in our social and educational set up. Entire teaching in our country is examination oriented and it is no wonder that both the teachers and the students are happy with the traditional methods and courses which have ensured better success to the students. Even when the teachers are convinced that training is necessary and worth the effort, they have first to unlearn what they have been traditionally teaching before they can be ushered into the new and unfamiliar ways of modern approach.
The routine class-room method of lecturing in a training programme makes the participant feel that he is being treated as a school-child and gives to the trainer the impression that the participants are not interested in learning. This creates a climate of distrust between the participants and the teacher and is disheartening to those associated with the programme.
It is advisable to build up local teachers’ centres with good lab and other facilities, to which teachers from the immediate neighbourhood could come at week-ends and discuss relevant class-room materials and problems. It is only enlightened teachers of mathematics, acquainted with problems of school mathematics, who can teach in an imaginative manner what school teachers would need particularly at the elementary level.
Generally, few schools and colleges have cared to possess a decent lab. A good lab in such school and each college helps to inservice training of teachers better than periodic workshops or orientation programmes A Good Mathematics lab should be set up in teacher training institutions and internet facility be made available at these institutions
A sample of students at the concerned level should be involved to form a test section for suitability of methods. Also, enthusiastic teachers at the same level and at a slightly higher level should be identified who could take the leadership in these programmes.
A good teacher of mathematics is one who uses his knowledge and love of the subject as well as his love and respect for his students to lead these students to enjoy the study of mathematics. Training programmes in India have not been very successful because the teachers for whom they are meant have not generally taken them seriously. Good teaching requires the maintenance of a high level of enthusiasm on the part of the teacher. Only an enthusiastic teacher can inspire the students. Mathematics teachers continually need mathematical enrichment experiences for themselves and obtaining such experience is worth the expenditure of time and effort. Demands that modern life makes on our time and energy poses a difficulty. But the price is worth the cost and for the teacher who would stay alive and active, the price simply must be paid.
The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lessons to his students, can only load their minds; he cannot quicken them, Truth not only must inform but must inspire. If the inspiration dies out and information only accumulates, then truth loses its infinity and the teacher loses his effectiveness.
(The author teachers at Govt. Girls HSS Poonch)
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