NCERT's New Class 8 Maths Textbook Brings Learning from Real Life into Classroom

The Class 8 Maths textbook, Ganita Prakash, seeks to transform learning into a participative, engaging, and real-life-relevant process. The set of new textbooks issued by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for Classes 5 and 8 this year according to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.

As per the authorities, it encourages learners to connect mathematical problems to real life-"What math is involved in making a cup of coffee?"-and draws on the work of ancient mathematicians such as Aryabhatta, Aryabhatta-II, and Brahmagupta to make concepts clear.

A summary of the New Class 8 Mathematics Textbook's Key Features follows:

1. Contextual Examples

Real life examples have been provided in the textbook for students to consider connections- particularly how Mathematics is connected to the real world. For instance- how a problem faced by a carpenter is being addressed through Mathematics- "If you have two pieces of the same length and a thread, can you make a rectangular frame using the thread".

2. Hypothetical Questions

For example, Brain-teaser problems, like "How many times would you fold a sheet of paper in order to get to the moon?" introduce students to huge amounts and numbers. 

3. Identifying Patterns

The book has students find patterns in solving one problem. One of the chapters in the book is talking about the well-known "Hardy-Ramanujan" number, 1729, the smallest number which can be written as the sum of two cubes in two ways.

4. Hindu Number System

The students learn about the importance of "Hindu Numbers" and "0"- how the Hindu Number System is strong in making use of only 10 numbers to represent any amount of things and more. 

5. "?Mark

??" sign appears all over the book to get students thinking and finding things out. A solid "?" with a thick stroke and having the appearance of a bubble is the mark of a main question, and a plain one is the mark of a sub-question, getting students thinking and finding things out.

6. Teacher's Guide

Contains teacher's tips on how to get the most out of the book.

7. Puzzles and Games

Puzzles, Games and activities are embedded in the textbook so that learning is done with fun and playfulness and questions are embedded in every part of the section rather than the end of the chapters.

8. Illustrations and Comics

Comics and colorful images make learning easier and interesting.

Ganita Prakash, in totality, weaves a creative approach with visual cues, historical contributions, and real-world contexts to generate curiosity and analytical thinking among learners.