Children selling vegetables and other goods in the market are good at calculating the prices. Researchers tested them by buying odd amounts and giving them a Rs 200 note, and they got it right if not the first time then the second time. This exercise was part of a research project which showed that expertise in mathematics does not transfer naturally from academic to practical settings or vice versa. Working children were poor in arithmetic in the classroom. Even though they spent part of the day in school and part of it in the market, they struggled with arithmetic presented in the abstract form. Only 32% of them could divide a three-digit number with a one-digit number, and 54% managed to do two subtraction sums of two digits. Yet in the market, they calculated prices and returns mostly without pencil and paper. Non-working children on the other hand, good in the classroom, could not deal with calculations outside it. Sums in class are not giving them real-life skills. This barrier between the formal and intuitive understanding of mathematics is being seen as a failure of teaching in Indian schools. Working children do badly in abstract mathematics because their mastery of algorithms taught in schools is poor. Conversely, non-working children know only the strategies taught in the classroom and cannot apply them to real-life situations.

This is a remarkable find and may open up research into the life skills of unlettered adults in markets as well. With education becoming universal, however, schools must be able to find ways for easy translation of school lessons into life skills. The problem is that the schools themselves show poor achievement levels. In its report in 2023, Pratham, a non-governmental organisation that publishes the Annual Status of Education Report, found that only half the children from Classes XI and XII could divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number, or calculate how many water purifying tablets a large pot needs after being given the number for a smaller pot. Such failures would suggest flaws in teaching. A mechanical approach to arithmetic in class would leave students unable not only to translate school lessons into life-skill lessons but also to tackle mathematics in higher classes and in higher studies. Both school curricula and teaching methods must undergo a change if these problems are to be solved.