{"id":240245,"date":"2023-04-29T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T14:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=240245"},"modified":"2023-04-29T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T14:29:11","slug":"wrong-number-life-isnt-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wrong-number-life-isnt-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrong Number: Life Isn\u2019t Math"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cWrong Number: Life Isn\u2019t Math \u2013 When policymakers privilege numeracy skills over other learning aptitudes, they don\u2019t recognise that lived experience & people\u2019s stories are key variables in any analysis<\/strong>\u201d published in The Times of India <\/strong>on\u00a029th<\/sup> April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Growth & Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>concerns associated with numerical data <\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has proposed making the study of mathematics compulsory for all students in England up to the age of 18.<\/p>\n

Why has the UK PM made mathematics compulsory?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is a popular sentiment in the UK that says it is all right to be bad in mathematics.<\/strong> Therefore, he thinks that low skill in mathematics has kept his country from surging ahead.<\/p>\n

However, his views that a strong hold in mathematics is required for a country\u2019s growth is erroneous.<\/p>\n

Why are the views of the UK PM regarding mathematics is incorrect?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Numeracy and prosperity don\u2019t always go together. For instance,<\/strong> the world\u2019s richest economy, the United States, ranks 38 globally in mathematics.<\/p>\n

In terms of numeracy,<\/strong> the UK ranks above Germany but below China, yet Germany has a higher GDP per capita than Britain while China\u2019s GDP per capita is lower.<\/p>\n

Therefore, for a country to progress, there is also other factors responsible rather than having only numerical skills.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as per John Maynard Keynes<\/strong>, a great economist, mathematical economies are a mixture of numbers that intend to hide the complexities of the real world.<\/p>\n

What are the concerns with mathematical numbers in an economy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mathematics has done a lot of good in policy making but it has also created a profession where numbers matter more than lived experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example,<\/strong> in measuring poverty, everything depends on what statistics tell us regardless of whether these figures reflect the real world.<\/p>\n

For measuring poverty in India,<\/strong> it was decided to include the basket of consumption in the calculations of poverty.<\/p>\n

However, there was a need to distinguish in the consumption basket between items that people earn and items they get as dole.<\/p>\n

This is because a rise in the consumption level signifies poverty removal. However, a rise in the dole is also a relief for the poor but it does not get calculated.<\/p>\n

Therefore, even if dole increases the numbers signifying poverty removal won\u2019t change. This is how numbers play a role in calculation but does not represent the real world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A similar concern with the number is that the National Sample Survey\u2019s data on rural India is unhelpful for a farmer.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As per NSS,<\/strong> a farmer is defined as \u201ca person who possesses some land and is engaged in some agricultural activities on that land during the last 365 days\u201d.<\/p>\n

The word \u2018during\u2019<\/strong> used in the definition not only keeps out the rural landless but also obscures the fact that most farmers rarely farm most of the time.<\/p>\n

Such definitions make numerical data collecting easier, but they distort the picture of rural India<\/strong> by exaggerating the number of farmers and agricultural households.<\/p>\n

What is the way ahead?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is not wise to simply rely on the numerical data and propose numeracy as the only way to prosper for a country and the people. Real world experiences are more important than just numerical skills.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cWrong Number: Life Isn\u2019t Math \u2013 When policymakers privilege numeracy skills over other learning aptitudes, they don\u2019t recognise that lived experience & people\u2019s stories are key variables in any analysis\u201d published in The Times of India on\u00a029th April 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Growth & Development Relevance: concerns… Continue reading Wrong Number: Life Isn\u2019t Math<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10496],"class_list":["post-240245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704938859},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}