‘Vedic maths is good for you’

The concept of introducing vedic mathematics in the school syllabus has been a contentious issue, even though it has proved to be a valuable asset for competitive post-graduation courses.

A senior mathematics teacher from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sadhana Srivastava, felt that the vedic mathematics basically helps to enhance the capability of students to solve tricky maths problems easily. “Vedic mathematics is a good concept but picking it up at a younger stage is very difficult,” she said.

Talking about the fall in applicants for Common Admission Tests (CAT), members of the enrolment team at Career Launcher felt that among various other reasons, the increasing difficulty level in the aptitude section has increased the fear among aspiring graduates. They feel their intensive one-year coaching helps students deal with aptitude questions easily.

A high school maths teacher at Good Shepherd Convent pointed out: “Picking up vedic mathemetics in one year is very difficult.” However, she strongly felt that introducing the basic concepts of vedic mathematics in school would help students in the long run to a certain extent.

She revealed that vedic maths was part of the syllabus but as students found it difficult to score in the subject, it was removed. “Vedic maths has more to do with speed and accuracy whereas high school maths is more application based. Students need to understand how a problem is solved and then develop their speed,” she said.

Anup Vishwanathan, an ex-IIM graduate, said that two years of rigorous practice had helped him gain speed and accuracy, and that helped him excel in the exams. This clearly is indicative of the fact that speed is a necessary skill that should be nurtured in all aspirants.

The people at Career Launcher felt that the increase in the difficulty level of management tests would slowly discourage students from attempting them. They pointed out that some of the reasons for the dip in numbers attempting these tests were increase in salaries at graduate level, executive courses, and increase in course fees.

(Sneha is a student of the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore. This article was first published in the institute paper, Daily Observer .)

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