A maths movement, since 1970

On the mezzanine floor of a four-storey building off BijonSetu, some of the city's top mathematicians - collectively working under the aegis of the Association for the Improvement of Mathematics Teaching (AIMT) - gather regularly to devise ways to improve maths teaching in schools. They have been doing this for 40 years now. Some of the founders of AIMT are no more. But the ideology they lived for still stands tall.
In the midst of the quest, they also try to address an issue that has bothered kids and parents for generations: maths phobia. The Association for the Improvement of Mathematics Teaching (AIMT) aims at identifying budding mathematicians and grooming them till they excel and add to the wealth of the subject.
Most of those who formed the youth brigade in 1970 are retired scholars now, but they have managed to attract young brains to carry the movement forward. Professors of leading universities and institutions like Jadavpur University, Presidency University, Calcutta University, ISI and IIT Kharagpur are members of AIMT's maths movement. Though the name AIMT is not common among schoolkids, the two tests that it has been taking for long - Talent Search Test (TST) and the Mathematical Competence Test (MCT) - are extremely popular among those boys and girls who have proficiency in mathematics.
The TST is meant for those who are due to appear in Class-X boards and the MCT for Plus Two students. The level of exams is far advanced than the boards. They can be attempted only by those who are a cut above the rest.
These tests are conducted to identify talents who can then be groomed for the regional maths Olympiads. Traditionally, the toppers in these tests have been successful in the national Olympiads. They are then picked up by the Homi Bhabha Centre of TIFR, Mumbai and sent to the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad.
While AIMT members wait eagerly for this year's International Mathematical Olympiad results - to be announced by the end of the month - they are simultaneously putting their heads together to get the question papers of the TST and the MCT readied for this year's exam on August 11. At least 2,000 of the state's budding maths brains will compete in each of the two tests.
"Technology ruled the world of education in the last decade. We did spot some bright maths scholars among kids who unfortunately took up engineering studies. Fortunately, times are changing and parents are finally realizing that exposure in foreign universities is just as attractive," said Dilip Sinha, president of AIMT. Incidentally, he was implicated in 2004 for attesting false certificates of a maths teacher at Visva-Bharati when he was the vice-chancellor there. While the jury is still out on the case, Sinha, one of the topmost mathematicians of the country, has immersed himself in the maths movement.
It was the dream of making discrete mathematics and photon programming popular among high school students during pre-computer days that brought mathematicians like PK Bose, Bireshwar Ray Chowdhury, Bharati Banerjee, Maniklal Bhattacharya and Anil Gayen together to form AIMT. "Maths teaching went through a lot of changes. We tried to follow global examples and then disseminate them among schoolteachers. While this was true of transformational geometery and discrete maths, it was also true of simple problem solving," explained Debprasanna Sinha, one of the first computer science experts of Jadavpur University and a mathematician by hobby.
It is sheer love for maths and a zest for netting the best minds that brings mathematicians like Debidas Chattoraj of Presidency University, Dilip Ganguly and Rabin Sen, both from Calcutta University, and Tarun Mukherjee of Jadavpur University together, despite extreme pressures of academics.
"The results of the international olympiad prove that we are on the right track. It is AIMT that spotted Sucharit Sarkar, who won the gold and silver medals at the international meets in 2001 and 2002 and is now teaching maths in Princeton. Last year, our find Debadyuti Banerjee won the gold medal in the world event and has taken up the subject for higher studies at the Chennai Mathematical Institute," said a proud Siddhartha Shankar Chattopadhyay, a mentor at AIMT and a teacher at Bidhannagar Government School.