After 18 months, India's Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan rejected a gift worth US$250 Billion to India. The gift was an all-new '5 year faster' primary-level Podometic Bharatiya Maths system ready for #NEP2020 implementation.
After 18 months, India’s Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has decided not to accept a gift worth US$250 Billion to India. The gift was an all-new ‘5 year faster’ primary-level Podometic Bharatiya Maths system for #NEP2020 implementation.
In India’s most recent round of OECD maths education testing, China ranked #1 while India ranked second last, beating only Kyrgyzstan. This is a sad miserable reality check for the country that invented zero as a number.
Meanwhile, China is progressing with education innovation at great speed. Dr. Xiaozhe Yang from the Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, East China Normal University wrote an article titled Accelerated Move for AI Education in China. In it he wrote:
Elementary education is central to the question of what kind of people society wants to create, and AI has a fundamental impact. Training people who will not be replaceable by AI is a crucial problem that needs to be addressed.
Dr. Xiaozhe Yang, Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, East China Normal University
If farm deregulation is to bring about economies of scale and improve India’s agricultural productivity, it should be noted that in the West, robots have increasingly been used to feed and milk cows when the cow chooses 24/7 to enhance the cow’s standard of living.
Similarly, India will not become an economic superpower of the back of human weavers when automation is increasingly powered and optimised by algorithms.
As India continues to perpetuate the crime that is broken British Macaulay Maths in its classrooms, China’s Ministry of Education is already teaching AI in primary-level classrooms. The difference could not be more stark.
Opposition parties are meant to create their education policies in opposition and implement them once in power. Yet, after seven years in power, India’s BJP Education Ministers simply never made the major changes promised at the ballot box.
So, what will Dharmendra Pradhan do now he has rejected the opportunity to supercharge India’s primary level maths education?
Just look at the school AI textbooks available now in China. The AI textbook series covers a wide range of topics ranging from robot pets, AI engineering to the more advanced programming language of Python.
China hopes to become a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. To reach that goal, the country has stepped up its effort to equip its future generations with curiosity and practical knowledge of the field.
It seems India is destined to remain a digital colony of the USA and beholden to Chinese high valued-added technology goods. Any economic advantage from technology within India seems destined for the pockets of handful of billionaires.
The key, as China has already demonstrated, is to invest in the best possible maths education starting from primary level. Twenty years ago China was not a major player in the race for patent application, control, monetization and power. Now, it has passed the USA to be #1 in the world for patents on the back of it being #1 for maths education.
Without massive reform in primary school level maths education India will continue to cede power to economic, intellectual and military power to China. Will future wars be won by AI powered algorithms turning off an adversary’s internet and electricity grid?
As you can see from the letters on this page, I implored many India’s BJP leaders to modernize its primary level maths education system by piloting Podometic Bharatiya Maths. You may be familiar with Vedic Maths from the Vedic Era. So, imagine how much more powerful the Post-Vedic maths of Aryabhata, Bhaskara and Brahmagupta can be in the classroom. Alas, Indian schools now risk being taught short-cut calculation tricks instead of the higher order thinking skills needed in an AI world.
No country excelling in science, technology, mathematics and information technologies did this by teaching centuries old special case short-cut tricks such as vertically and crosswise known as the ‘sluggards rule’ for answers to 98 × 97. Departing from these methods, Podometic Bharatiya Maths directly and intuitively links to the laws of physics in ways elementary maths today simply cannot do.
For the past decade I focused on finding fixing and modernizing India’s long lost ancient maths. I was first called an Indophile in Australian media in 2011. Night and day I worked to revive the glory of India’s maths. I was driven by the belief India could become a Vishwa Guru again in the area of maths education.
Yet, I was mistaken. India’s BJP seems incapable of responding to China’s massive investment in grass roots maths and science education. While Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has enormous challenges before him, what do overseas observers see? He is opening petroleum facilities and giving praise to wealthy and powerful fossil fuel powerbrokers. The world needs clean green renewal energy and better maths education is the way future scientists will deliver the solutions India needs.
Putting an oil man in charge of education appears out-of-step with the future needs of India’s children.
Meanwhile, China and Pakistan’s Education Ministers focus on their respective missions.
Sadly, some BJP leaders seem content to let education innovation be the responsibility of long-term bureaucrats. Yet game-changing innovation seldom emerges from within the status quo. Change should have been driven from the top, yet despite all its slogans, when it comes to bold leadership and innovation, India was unwilling to even respond to a gift in Bharatiya Maths that could only have improved its global reputation along with its economic prosperity.
More than 8500 signed a petition supporting the idea of India leading the world in primary-level maths education. In online polls more than 90 percent wanted Bharatiya Maths taught in primary-level classrooms rather than British Maths.
As more than 90 percent of Indian supported Bharatiya Maths, I didn’t expect zero reaction to the precious gift of Bharatiya Maths to India’s BJP leaders. Did you?
Yet, that’s Dharmendra Pradhan ‘s decision and India will have to live with it.
So, I will no longer focus my efforts on helping India dramatically improve its maths education to bring about a proud Indic Renaissance.
Thank you for your kind words.
Over and out.
Jonathan J. Crabtree
www.twitter.com/jcrabtree
Founder: Podometic Bharatiya Maths
www.podometic.com
www.podometic.in
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.
