This guru teaches English through maths!

Published on February 28, 2020

AHMEDABAD: Words and numbers don’t match, one might say. But not for this teacher from Bhavnagar. Gordhan Dihora, a primary school teacher from Trambak Primary School near Ghogha, has found a unique method to teach English while he teaches Mathematics to the students of Class VI-VIII.

His is one of the 135 teacher-led innovations displayed at DIET Ahmedabad organized by Gujarat Council of Educational Research & Training (GCERT), Gandhinagar as part of three-day Education Innovation Festival.

It was participation of his students in finals of Talent Test 2019 organized by All India Ramanujan Maths Club that led him to the innovation. “They were among the top five teams but could not be winners — the deciding factor was their inability to understand English even when they knew the mathematics involved,” said Dihora. “After the event, I started working on a plan to include English in Mathematics — the challenge was not to let the students know that they were learning it!”

“There are 22 such exercises designed — some of which have taken me days — which are for different mathematical concepts of class VI to VIII,” said Dihora. Currently, 145 students are learning with this concept, leading them to discover 4,000 English words annually.

T S Joshi, director of GCERT, said that the idea of the festival is to promote innovations like Dihora’s. “They are the teachers who have faced problems and have come up with indigenous solutions which are easy to replicate. We are also documenting these innovations and bringing in teachers from across the state so that they can get inspired by the grassroots ideas,” he said.