The idea is to not only to upgrade the knowledge of the teachers but also to introduce them to new methodologies of teaching.

The Annual Status of Education in India Report (ASER) released this year reveals that just 20.9 per cent of government primary and junior high school students in the state were able to solve subtraction problems, while just 23 per cent were good at division sums. Around 26 per cent of the students knew nothing of arithmetic.

Even surprise inspections conducted by the departmental officers revealed that students lacked basic mathematics skills. While most of the students failed to answer questions asked by officials, what was more surprising was that even some teachers found it difficult to solve problems.

Taking such reports into consideration, the government has decided to first train the teachers.

"Various facilities are being provided in the schools right from mid-day meal to books and proper infrastructure to retain the students. Therefore, there should not be any excuse for poor quality of education. This is the reason why we have decided to train the teachers first on the subject so that they can help develop the interest of students," said Rohit Nandan, the Principal Secretary, Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Department.