Education Minister presents laptops to maths teachers

Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, Minister of Education, on Friday presented 155 laptops to teachers who just ended training in mathematics.

The computers would help them to simplify the subject and improve the results of students in both senior high schools and junior high schools (SHS/JHS).

She said the distribution of the laptops to the teachers was one key strategy of the Ministry to improve the delivery of mathematics teachers in class which should find expression in the performance of students.

Prof Naana Opoku Agyemang was addressing 151 teachers drawn from the Western, Central and Northern regions who had gone through a two- week training workshop to improve their capacities in the subject.

The workshop was organised by the Ghana Society for Mathematics and held at Meagasa Mathematics Academy and facilitated by Prof Sitsofe Anku, a renowned mathematician.

The national training of trainer’s workshop was on the theme: “Revamping Mathematics Education in Ghana through transformation.”

The training workshop, which has benefited 350 mathematics teachers across the country, is a recommendation of the science and mathematics committee which was instituted in 2013 under the leadership of Prof Anamuah Mensah to assess challenges in teaching and learning of the subject and propose measures to address them.

Prof Naana Opoku Agyemang said due to low trend in performance of students in mathematics efforts are being to put in place to reverse the trend, including; engagement with key stakeholder groups to ascertain the causes of the decline in performance in 2015 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination.

The planned engagement would take the form of forum with mathematics and science teachers from public and private schools, forum with heads of low performing schools, forum with chief examiners and with immediate past and current students of JHS and SHS.

She said the forums would enable the Ministry to identify outstanding mathematics and science tutors from performing schools and engage them to record lessons for streaming on Ghana Television at appropriate times.

The West African Examination Council would also be engaged to offer an opportunity to the students who may have failed in their examinations to register and resit the examination in November.

Focused monitoring of low performing schools would also be done and efforts would also be made to identify underperforming private schools and public schools that are not covered under the secondary education improvement project and extend training in mathematics and science to cover them.

The Minister said poor teaching methodologies in the subject, inadequate number of teachers with competences in teaching mathematics and science, inadequate teaching and learning are among challenges affecting the good grasp of the subject.

A review of chief examiners report also reveals the lack of understanding of the questions, inadequate coverage of syllabus, poor language and communication skills, poor techniques of answering questions and lack of in-depth treatment of topics.

Ms Sharifatu Suglo Mohammed, a teacher at Uthmaniya JHS in Tamale and the Course prefect, gave the assurance that the trainers would help encourage students to remove the negative perception about mathematics from their minds.

This, she noted, would make Ghana not only a tourist site for natural resources but for producing best mathematicians and scientist in the world.

Ms Mohammed, however, appealed to the Ministry to set up a special fund for regular workshops for teachers to upgrade their knowledge, otherwise the efforts of Prof Anku, would be meaningless.

She said governments should also extend their visions to link up with the vision of the education sector in the area of mathematics and science.

She appealed to the Education Minister to look into the issue of mathematics teachers teaching other subjects because of inadequate teachers, which she said is not helpful.