Students suffering from math-phobia have reasons to rejoice.

A three-day summer sojourn is being organised to induce in them a sense of joy in cracking problems that they may now find incomprehensible.

The unique plan was hit upon by a group of teachers, several from reputed city schools, who have formed Centre for Pedagogical Studies in Mathematics.

During the upcoming summer vacation, the centre will take students from various city schools to a faraway place and teach them mathematics through modern techniques.

?We are worried over the increasing number of students developing a fear for mathematics,? said Arundhati Mukherjee, a teacher of Gokhale Memorial School and one of the organisers of the sojourn.

?We have to popularise the subject among our students. Otherwise, they will never be able to compete in science and technology with their counterparts from other states,? she added.

What alarmed the teachers are the results of last year?s Maths Olympiad: not a single student from the state had qualified for the national round.

The state and the national-level screenings of the international contest are conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.

?Our studies have revealed that children will never find mathematics boring if they are taught from lower classes how the subject is linked to our everyday life,? Mukherjee told Metro.

?Once they realise this, they will have fun in solving math problems. What we intend to do is generate this liking for maths among students,? she added.

But why will the programme be held far off from the city? Bibhas Guha, a teacher of Naba Nalanda School, said: ?We feel the kind of training we will impart to the children will have a lasting impact only if the course is held close to nature.?

Also, the environ will ensure that the students do not get bored midway through the course.

The programme will differ in many ways from the routine classroom lectures. For instance, textbooks will not be followed.

Instead, the mathematical concepts will be taught through examples from practical experience.

The students may be given big cardboard boxes and asked to work out how much paint will be required to colour them.

They will be encouraged to follow their own methods, instead of the textbook-prescribed method of finding out the volume or the area of a box.

?Our target students are those studying between Classes V and VII. It is at this stage that several students develop a phobia for mathematics,? explained Biswapati Guha, a teacher of Better High School.