P K Srinivasan: a visionary in the field of mathematics

S Sundaram

I met P K Srinivasan (PKS) at Rishi Valley School in 1990, where he had come to conduct math training programs for teachers. It was the beginning of a 15-year friend-mentor-philosopher association.

It was because of him that I realized that though I was good at mathematics, my understanding of math concepts left a lot to be desired. He revealed to me the subtle and beautiful aspects of mathematics. As I re-learnt my primary mathematics with him, I also developed a deeper understanding of the languages, sciences, and social studies in the framework of concepts, information, and skills that PKS used.

PKS’ life mission was to show math educators that abstract math ideas could be made tangible, even to children in primary school through the use of manipulatives and help them relate their own life experiences to these concepts. His philosophy was “Concepts cannot be taught. They have to be caught”. He felt that the traditional chalk and talk method of teaching is not suitable for mathematics and inevitably leads to math anxiety. Math concepts cannot be “taught”, learners have to be enabled “to learn” them.

To enable such learning, PKS developed activities with simple everyday materials. He was a great believer in setting up math labs in schools for exploring math concepts and in making “math practicals” a part of assessment strategies for mathematics.

I was totally convinced about the effectiveness of the PKS approach.

I have worked in several schools around India and my effort has been to convey the joy of learning math to both students and teachers by using PKS’ teaching approaches.

A case study by IIMA of the academic efforts in Reliance School in Jamnagar during my tenure documents that “(In five years) Math had gone from being the most hated subject to the most loved one.”

My understanding of primary math also grew with my continuous interactions with teachers, and as my understanding deepened, I started conducting training programs for schoolteachers under the theme “Understanding Primary Math.”

I have been sharing my understanding of primary math through articles in Teacher Plus magazine as well. After my retirement from active school life in 2013, I started documenting the math ideas I had learnt directly from PKS and those I learnt myself motivated by his spirit. They are now available in a free-to-access website, Understanding Primary Math.

In 2021, I started a Facebook page Primary Math is Easy, where I explain conceptual ideas from pre-school and primary school math syllabus in easy-to-read posts. I completed 600 odd FB posts on primary math in October 2024, just before PKS’ 100^th birth anniversary on 4^th November 2024.

I felt that a fitting guru dakshina to a person like PKS would be to share with the teacher community stories of how different teachers in different schools were influenced by his ideas and the effect they saw in their students. I hope these next few articles inspire you to look at mathematics with a new lens.

The author has worked as a principal in several schools in different parts of India. He is currently working as an independent primary math consultant. He can be reached at sundaram021148@gmail.com.