The Role of Teachers in Reducing Mathematics Phobia in School Students at Birbhum District, West Bengal, India

Mathematics phobia, commonly described in the research literature as mathematics anxiety, is a pervasive affective barrier that undermines the mathematical achievement, confidence and life opportunities of a large number of school students. In rural and semi-urban educational contexts such as Birbhum District of West Bengal, this phobia interacts with structural conditions—first-generation learning, resource scarcity, language of instruction, and examination pressure—to produce persistent underperformance and avoidance behaviour in mathematics. This paper examines the pivotal and often decisive role that teachers play in either reinforcing or reducing mathematics phobia among school students in Birbhum. Drawing on established theories of mathematics anxiety, the National Curriculum Framework (2005) position on the “fear and failure” of mathematics, and a descriptive survey approach involving secondary-stage students and teachers, the study identifies the principal sources of phobia and analyses the teacher-related factors that shape learners’ emotional relationship with the subject. The findings suggest that authoritarian classroom climates, procedural and speed-based teaching, public correction of errors, and negative teacher expectations significantly heighten anxiety, whereas empathetic communication, error-tolerant environments, concrete and contextualised instruction, formative assessment, and the deliberate building of self-efficacy substantially reduce it. The paper concludes that teachers in Birbhum are not merely transmitters of mathematical content but the primary affective mediators of the discipline, and it offers a set of context-sensitive pedagogical and policy recommendations for reducing mathematics phobia in the district.