Haryana goes on overdrive to promote Vedic maths in schools, varsities

The ancient discipline of Vedic mathematics is being promoted at schools and universities in Haryana like never before. The BJP government in the state has asked the Haryana Board of School Education in 2016 to explore steps to promote the subject after SK Kapoor, a retired judge from Rohtak who has authored several books on the subject, approached the former on the issue.

Indira Gandhi University, Meerpur (Rewari), introduced the subject recently in MSc third semester.

The board formed a committee in which Rakesh Bhatia, who is also from Rohtak and has also authored books on the subject, was roped in as the main resource person and Narenderjeet Rawal of Bhiwani, who is also a subject expert and is associated with the (RSS)’s education wing Vidya Bharati, as its head.

The committee has held several workshops since. A workshop of senior mathematics teachers from all districts was organised at the board office in which the participants sought to introduce the subject in all schools of Haryana, Bhatia claimed.

The board set up another committee last year to frame the syllabus as an additional subject. Besides Bhatia and Rawal, retired judge SK Kapoor and Sunil Bajaj of Gurgaon, head, mathematics wing, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Haryana, were included in it. The committee has framed the syllabus for Class 9 and the board plans to introduce it in about 100 schools on pilot basis in the coming academic session, Singh said.

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The further decision on this will be taken after evaluation of the experiment and also keeping in mind the availability of subject teachers in the state, he said. When contacted, Kapoor said it was Banaras Hindu University (BHU) which started the subject though it took these over 50 years that it got wide acceptance world over.

Kapoor, who attended an international conference on Vedic maths last week at Saint Stephen College, Delhi, said many research papers demonstrated values of the ancient discipline need be introduced at school and college level as it is of much advance value.

Indira Gandhi University, Meerpur (Rewari), introduced the subject recently in MSc third semester. Some other varsities including Chaudhary Bansi Lal University, Bhiwani; Bhagat Phool Singh University, Sonepat and YMCA University, Faridabad, are also contemplating to start certificate courses on the subject.