CHENNAI: L S Padmaja received an award for the State-level Maths Talent test, recently. The test saw the little girl, who has been rendered immobile by polio, compete with 4,000 students across the State in the number game.
Even as the class seven student had to be helped by her teachers and carried to the stage to recieve the award, Padmaja hopes to use her maths skill to help others around her. “I want to participate in the examination next time also and receive an ‘Excellent’ grade. As of now, my grade is ‘Good’. In the long term, I want to become an IAS officer and help poor people,” she said. When asked what made her take to mathematics, she said causally, “It is just easy to do.”
Her mathematics teacher, K Malathi pointed out that not only did Padmaja catch the lessons quicker than others in the class, but also helped fellow students. “She does better than the ordinary children. When you teach her, you would hardly realise she is a differently-abled child,” she said.
Speaking at the event organised by the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, director of School Examinations, K Devarajan urged students to take up science and mathematics at a professional level. “Government of India has taken up a slew of schemes to help students pursuing mathematics and science take up a profession in the field. There are schemes that provide scholarships for students in the subject, right from Undergraduate level to PHD. After this, they will be taken into one of the Council of Scientific and Cultural Research (CSIR) institutions. Despite such schemes, students continue to prefer engineering or IT to Maths,” he said.
He also mentioned about the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission and the significance of Maths subject in solving problems in real life. The event saw the distribution of prizes to around 250 students who took part in the examination.