ESTABLISH MATHS RESOURCE CENTRES IN ALL REGIONS (PAGE 11)

THE President of the Mathematics Association of Ghana (MAG), Mr G. K. Abiw-Abaidoo, has called for the establishment of Mathematics laboratories/resource centers in each of the 10 regions of the country.
He said Mathematics teachers could go to such centres for interaction and avail themselves of the use of current teaching and learning materials that would make their classroom delivery interesting and real.
In addition, he said, there should be a set of standard mathematics textbooks to be used in all schools instead of allowing the proliferation of all sorts of pamphlets on the subject in schools, a situation which does not benefit the students.
He made the call when he addressed the 34th annual conference/workshop of the association at the St. James Seminary/Senior High School at Abesim, near Sunyani, in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The theme for the meeting was, “Practical means of Dealing with the Issues Arising out of the 2007 New Educational Reform in Mathematics”.
The MAG President suggested that the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports adopts the MAG Mathematics textbooks which were not only written by a consortium of experienced Mathematics teachers but are also user-friendly, 100 per cent compliant, and had been reviewed to take into consideration the redenomination of the cedi and the latest West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) syllabus just as the Joint Schools Project (JSP) was used in all schools some time ago.
Mr Abiw-Abaidoo called on the Ministry to sponsor Mathematics workshops in the districts to equip them with current changes in the teaching of the subject.
Again, he said, MAG should be fully recognised as a necessary partner in the new educational reform, which he said, would not be complete without a “reformed teacher”.
He said since Mathematics was the “cement that ticks the exact sciences together and the fact that MAG always provides its members with tools or teaching for understanding during its annual workshops, it will not be out of place if MAG is consulted in the selection of resource persons and the planning of future capacity building workshops in Mathematics, such as the one recently held throughout the country”.
The MAG President indicated that the main objective of the founding fathers of MAG in 1960 was to improve the teaching of Mathematics and to acquaint members with new trends in the teaching and learning of the subject in Ghana.
Mr Abiw-Abaidoo explained that membership of MAG was opened to practising teachers of Mathematics in educational institutions, persons who were interested in or concerned with the teaching of Mathematics or with its application in government, commerce or industry, and that honorary membership could be accorded persons who had rendered singular service to promote the teaching and learning of the subject.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, agreed that any policy which sought to make Science and Technology a priority was likely to fail if Mathematics was not given equal or greater attention.
He however noted that Mathematics as a subject had been dreaded by many students, and that the subject could have died or been ignored completely, and not even the existence of MAG could save it if the new educational reform had not made it compulsory at the pre-tertiary levels and as a requirement for tertiary education.
Mr Baffour-Awuah expressed the hope that the influence of MAG would be felt in the new educational reform by accepting the challenges and resolving to encourage Mathematics teachers to build confidence in their students so as to enable the country to move forward in its educational programme.
The Rector of the Sunyani Polytechnic, Prof. Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, observed that the study of Mathematics was very important to every human being, whether literate or illiterate, saying that it was due to the immense role that Mathematics played in the lives of the citizenry that the curriculum designers in the Ghana Education Service (GES) in their wisdom made the subject compulsory at the junior and senior high school levels.
The Rector of the St. James Seminary/Senior High School, Rev. Fr. Alex Ansu Ebow, pointed out that the 21st century society cannot move forward without the conscious study of Mathematics and Science.
He said, society’s answers to energy, housing, food and clothing problems, depended on how scientists were able to use their knowledge in Science and Mathematics to find practical and appropriate solutions to those pertinent problems facing humankind the world over.