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The writer is a Harvard Project Zero–trained educator and internationally published writer and journalist
Have you ever wondered what makes math so frightening for students in Pakistan that it leads to panic attacks? Have you ever compared the scared, silent classroom during math to the lively one during other subjects? Is math truly impossible, or was it only ever conveyed but never taught?
From the earliest classrooms, mathematics is not explained; it is dumped. It is taught badly because concepts are never exemplified. Teachers walk in, fill the board with solutions, and order students to copy like obedient machines.
Take any basic topic: linear equations. A question appears: Solve 2x + 5 = 15. What does the teacher do? Do they explain what an equation means? Do they explain balance, equality, or why numbers move from one side to the other? No. They instantly write:
2x + 5 = 15
2x = 15 – 5
2x = 10
x = 5
“Learn this method,” they say. That’s it. There is no meaning, no context, no logic, and no comprehension; just blind, robotic obedience to a dead checklist. And if a student asks, “Why did +5 become -5?” The brush-off is usually, “This is the only rule. Don’t waste time.” Since when did rules replace reasoning?
Or take word problems, the graveyard of student confidence. A question describes a situation, asks students to construct an equation, and then execute it. Teachers don’t teach how to read the question, how to translate language into numbers, or how to think step by step. Instead, they perform a single, rapid-fire solution on the board and say, “This type will come in exams.” What type? Where did the equation come from? Why was this operation chosen? Silence.
Students are left staring at symbols like an untranslated ancient text they were never taught to speak.
Then comes geometry, where understanding is completely murdered. Board exams are obsessed with theorems, not thinking. Take the infamous instruction: “State and prove the theorem.” Teachers dictate entire proofs word for word. Students copy every line, underline keywords, and memorise paragraphs like a poem, just to secure the ten-mark question. Why does this angle equal that angle? Why does this triangle match that one? Don’t ask. “This exact theorem will come in the paper.” And it does…same wording, same steps, same diagram.
Yes! Math becomes a performance of speed, not sense. Teachers rush to finish the syllabus, not to build understanding. They assume students magically know what they never demonstrated. And when students fail, the blame is instantly shifted. “You didn’t focus.” “You are weak in math.” Weak, or abandoned?
Math is taught with pressure, not patience. With threats, not thought. Teachers shout instead of explaining, shame instead of guiding. Do they really believe fear creates intelligence? Do they think terror builds understanding? Or is it just easier to intimidate than to actually teach?
This is why coaching centres flourish. Schools quietly admit defeat. Teachers stop trying. Parents are forced to pay again so their children can survive exams designed around memorisation, not intelligence. Why should families fund a “second education” because the first one failed?
And what about those who cannot afford private tutors? They are instantly filtered out of the race. How many future inventors, analysts and scientists were destroyed by a system that worships memorisation and fears explanation?
Let’s be clear: bad math teachers are the root of this damage. Pakistan does not test mathematical thinking in board exams; it tests memory. Teachers teach to the exam, not to the mind. Theorems are memorised, formulas are crammed, steps are copied, and understanding is optional.
Math anxiety in Pakistan is not a student weakness; it is teacher-created trauma. And a school that protects a bad teacher forces students to stay quiet about their pain.
Until math is taught with explanation instead of ego, patience instead of pressure, and understanding instead of intimidation, nothing will change. Until bad teachers are exposed instead of protected, anxiety will continue to thrive in classrooms. And until education stops confusing fear with discipline, Pakistani students will keep stifling their potential behind obedient faces.
Math is not the enemy. Students are not the guilty party. Bad teaching is.
