The Man Who Put My Maths Knowledge To Test & My View On T&l Maths

Mathematics is such a problem that some people suggest that the word PROBLEMATIC is an amalgamation of these two words; PROBLEm & matheMATICs.

But the fact is it's so indispensable in our everyday lives. My first time to meet Jeremiah Buabeng proved that. When I was to meet him in Kasoa, the guy gave me a direction that demanded that I put my maths knowledge in the topic "ESTIMATION OF DISTANCES" to work.

Unlike most Ghanaians who will direct you making references to mango trees, 'wakye' sellers, telling you to walk 'áááááá' Jerry simply said, "Take a taxi and alight at... junction. Facing north, take the road leading to your right and walk about 500m and stop. I will meet you there."

That was my first ever classic direction I've ever heard and/or given. It was a clear educated elite direction.

I was then faced to find my north and then estimate what 500m distance would be. The fact is I love maths anyway. Not a bad student in it. By grace, I never had anything apart from 'A' in it while in College. But that day, his direction changed my approach to how I teaches the maths topics as a teacher. I asked myself how many students of mine would be able to know that the distance they have covered would be estimated to 500m should they have been in my shoe.

A friend at WAEC called me oneday and was trying to understand if the issue of students failing maths is from we the teachers. I asked why his question. According to him, the number of students who register for maths during the private examination (NOV/DEC) is a concern and this year's own appeared to be astronomical vis a vis the previous years.

Then came my worry. If the approach to the teaching & learning (T&L) is not earlier looked at, I'm afraid, Our giving of directions will remain poor because the topic; 'ESTIMATION OF DISTANCES' has not been taught and learnt well.

Our contractors in future may construct gutters and yet the water can't flow through because the maths topic, 'GRADIENT/SLOPE' has not been taught and learnt well.

Our BC students may graduate and still put up buildings that won't take a year to collapse because the maths topic 'RATIO' (say ratio of sand to cement to water) has not been taught and learnt well.

That business woman may continue blaming witches for the continues nose dive in her business because the maths topic, 'PROFIT AND LOSS' has not been taught and learnt well.

That worker may get to the bank and leave blank the space on his cheque paper that demands that he write the amounts in words because the maths topic, 'WRITING FIGURES IN WORDS' or better still 'PLACE VALUE' has not been taught and learnt well.

I can go on and on but because of limited space and the fact that we (Ghanaians) don't like reading especially if the piece is quite lengthy, I will pause.

All that I'm trying to allude to is maths is so vital to the individuals and for the development of our nation.

My lesson from the man who put my maths knowledge to test is that, teachers have to relate maths to every day life to whet the learners' interest the more in the subject because as I was concern in E-Maths class back at SSS, I really don't know why I should learn CALCULUS, SCATTERED DIAGRAM, *CIRCLE THEOREM ...

My question and that of the numerous maths students' (especially those at the basic and secondary levels) is, 'WHEN & WHERE WILL I APPLY ALL THESE MATHS TOPICS?'

I'm not playing the innocent game here though.
I call on GES, GNAT, NAGRAT, NUGS, Mathematical Association of Ghana (MAG), Mathematics Community of Ghana(MACOG), Mathematical Society of Ghana, PTA, Ghana Association of Science Teachers (GAST), and other interest groups to have a broad stakeholders consultation on making a headway on the monster call, MATHEMATICS.

A worried Teacher
Divine K. Kpe
(Divsone)