In 1986, Sunil was only 7 years old when he dropped out of school.  Living in rural India and working on his family’s farm, Sunil frequently missed school, often for many days at a time. He quickly fell behind and became disconnected from school, ultimately leaving it altogether.  Sunil, now 32, barely knows how to read or write and he can perform only the most basic arithmetic. Without a quality basic education, he was forced to take up selling clothes on the street to scratch out a living when his family sold their farm some 15 years ago.

Unfortunately Sunil grew up when there were few, if any, resources available to families to help prevent children from falling behind in school. But this doesn’t have to be the case for children today.Advancements in technology and prolific jumps in internet availability are bringing children closer to powerful resources that can supplement their learning and help keep them on track in school.

I recently came across two digital resources for learning mathematics that partner countries could possibly utilize to help ensure stories such as Sunil’s become something of the past.  School teachers, parents, and children can all use these resources to supplement the math curriculum.  With access to the internet, both resources provide free material and help students:

• Review concepts they missed in class on their own time;
• Break down information into manageable pieces, or the fundamentals of a math concept, which students can build on to learn the larger math concept;
• Allow students to practice fundamentals of math concepts so that they can perform better in school.

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that aims to provide free education globally.  Salman Khan, who developed the academy, envisions that his videos could help every child, anywhere in the world, despite their socioeconomic class, to learn math, and other subjects.  The academy offers over 2400 free video lessons on mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics and computer science.  Lessons cover all levels, from arithmetic to complex algebra.

In his TED conversation, Khan discusses a case study from Los Altos, California, in which the teacher used Khan’s videos as a learning tool in the classroom. As each student worked at their own pace learning material from Khan’s videos, the teacher found that she could spend more time working with each student answering their specific questions.  Students can watch lessons, practice what they’ve learned, and even test themselves to see how they’ve done!  Each video is 10 minutes long and designed so that a student can open a web browser and watch the lesson on their computer.

Watch a video on scientific notation.

JUMP Math

JUMP Math is a program based out of Canada that provides a number of resources for teachers and students.  I had the opportunity of speaking with the founder of JUMP Math, John Mighton.  Mighton explained that JUMP Math recognizes that many students have trouble with math because they can’t remember basic math skills to be able to perform complex mathematics.  JUMP Math’s lessons focus on students practicing math skills in incremental steps that build on each other to more complex concepts.

JUMP Math’s lessons are designed in a way that teachers can ask students critical questions, and feedback, as they are learning the steps leading to a complex problem.  The JUMP Math Teachers Guides provide lessons for math curriculum grades one through eight and come with assessments and practice. JUMP Math’s work is similar to the work our colleague, Helen Abadzi, has researched and implemented in reading – “automatizing knowledge” – a phrase used by neuropsychologists, which means reducing a problem to its component parts and then building it back up incrementally, or an emphasis on rehearsing the basics before digesting a complex problem.

There are a number of free teacher resources on JUMP’s website.  JUMP also provides resources for students such as workbooks.  Watch this video to see the impact it has made on children and educators

Sunil’s story is real. Without skills in basic math, reading and writing, Sunil’s opportunities and choices for growth were extremely limited. Supplemental learning resources can help keep children’s learning on track and may be worth exploring for developing countries, donors and other stakeholders to help ensure that every child is learning, both inside and outside of the classroom.