DNA Micro Edit: Making maths optional may not benefit students

A year after state education minister Vinod Tawde announced that the government was thinking of making Mathematics optional for Class 10, the Bombay High Court gave a similar suggestion on Tuesday, bringing the issue back into focus. Mathematics has always been a daunting prospect for a large number of students. Experts have repeatedly said that many students fail school and board exams mainly due to their inability to cope with mathematics and English.

Despite this, most experts are still unsure of whether maths should be made optional, as it is regarded as fundamental due to its significance in daily life. Another concern is the fear of losing out on professional courses like engineering and management if a child doesn’t make the ‘right’ decision about opting for the subject in school. Nevertheless, there is a general consensus among parents, teachers and students that maths should not become a hurdle in a child’s academic progress. 

Many successful people have shared ordeals of having to deal with maths, which they would have preferred excluded in their own school years. While making  the subject optional would bring cheer to a lot of students who struggle with it, they and their parents seem to have already weighed in on the issue. Very few of them decided to opt for the less rigorous ‘general maths’ course that the state had offered from 2008 till May this year. An option to drop maths completely could find even fewer takers, as it may be fraught with risk in the long run.