Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Lack of quality maths teachers, PhDs

There is a serious dearth of high quality mathematics teachers and PhDs in various engineering colleges all over Bangalore, metros, Tier II and III cities in India. There is need of these professionals to improve the standards of teaching and research to match with the global standards. 
 
A professor and researcher, Rangarajan, from IISC told TOI that India was lacking behind in maths and things should improve urgently. He took stock of the status of mathematics in universities and colleges in India post-the World Congress of Mathematics held in Hyderabad. This event was an important one since it could find the areas where improvements had to be taken. To make the things better it was said that more students should take interest in mathematics. Rangarajan said that the research institutions and universities lacked proper faculty in mathematics and this was the reason that a world class research and teaching quality could not be attained. Even the engineering colleges face the same situation and moreover research activities are also not given priority by the colleges.
Talking to TOI, Rangarajan said, “There is serious lack of research mathematicians working on applied and industrial problems. There is a crying need for such persons".  

Though sufficient amount of grants are available for research work in the subject concerned, but there is a lack of student input. Special fellowships with higher stipend should be given to the PhD students in order to motivate them.  

Career prospects in mathematics are quite bright and plenty of jobs are available. The students and the parents should be made aware of these opportunities to make them interested in the subject.
 
Mathematics being an interdisciplinary subject is closely related to physics, biology and engineering sciences. Financial services, data mining companies and research labs of companies like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, GE and GM need professionals in mathematics.

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