About the gradual loss of exquisiteness and elegance of Mathematics.

I find that the standard of teaching mathematics (particularly in most of the schools, nay, public school) is diminishing. The teachers don’t do any brain-storming, or any R&D in providing newer ways of solving problems. They are teaching mathematics simply for the sake of teaching and not for letting the students savor the classical aspect of mathematics. I tell you my point of view. I developed a knack for Maths which culminated in true love for mathematics, not because I was very good at Maths in my school or college days, but because I was taught Maths by some of best brains of the subject. Though they were not IITians, they had that inkling which made the most boring subject i.e. Maths most romantic to me. These teachers included those of Hindu Inter College Amroha, those of Meerut College, Meerut (Some big names I feel proud of paying my gratitude include Mr. M L Khanna, Mr. A R Vashishtha, Mr. S N Goel, Mr. B D Gupta, Mr. S D Sharma and many more). All these stalwarts are known not only for the classical techniques of teaching Mathematics but also for the books they wrote and which I still possess in my library, which again I am proud of.

I remember, in eighties, when me and many friends of mine were doing their XII with PCM in UP, there was no occurrence of suicides of students due to Mathematics or Physics or Chemistry. The syllabus of Mathematics was vast, really immense. We had 7 books of Mathematics in XI-XII and the Board Paper of XII covered the syllabus for both the years and there were three papers for Mathematics. क्‍या शानदार दिन थे. There were no coaching institutes and if there were some private tutors for Maths and Physics, our parents could not afford. And we enjoyed Mathemati

cs.

The coaching came into vogue in Nineties. And since then, Mathematics started losing its lure. The teachers in school started failing in invoking interest in students for Mathematics and they finally submitted themselves to a large market of supplementary books and became a puppet in the hands of coaching institutes. And this resulted into what? This resulted into a perpetual de-standardizing, debunking and destabilizing of government schools where, once upon a time, the invaluable treasure of teachers of Mathematics and Physics was preserved, nourished, refined and cultured. I remember, when I joined Meerut College, Meerut for B.Sc (PCM) after doing XII from Amroha (UP), the Government Inter College, Meerut (GIC, in short) had a very big name, fame and charisma. I remember, apart from some of the outsider students like me, most of the students were from GIC and they were superb in all three subjects, i.e. Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

I learn कि जीआईसी तो ज़मींदोज़ हुआ जाता है और उसके स्‍थान पर अनेकों पब्लिक स्‍कूल्‍स की इमारतें खड़ी हो गई हैं. और कमोबेश यह स्थिति हर शहर के सरकारी स्‍कूलों की है and I lament.