Beyond "Math Is Difficult": Rethinking Mathematics Education And Curriculum

Mathematics is a core subject at all levels of pre-tertiary education. It provides a solid foundation for critical thinking, problem-solving, and advancement in the economy of any country. However, students’ performance examinable through the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) is not something all stakeholders of education in Ghana can boast of. While policy directives from the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ghana Education Service (GES), and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) have attempted to reform instructional methodologies, an opinion from a Presidential Staffer on overlooking pass marks in Mathematics for Arts students raised lots of concern; Arts students, in the past, almost always did subjects that concentrated on reading rather than calculations. The register for it in Ghana is “Reading Subject.”

The problem associated with Mathematics is contained in the underlisted reasons:

1. TRADITIONAL MINDSET ABOUT SUBJECT DIFFICULTY: This is through socio-cultural constructs and socio-emotional conditioning which has been orally proven through the cliché “Maths is difficult.” This colloquial expression reflects a socio-culturally reinforced cognitive barrier termed Mathematics Anxiety in educational psychology (Tobias, 1993). In the Ghanaian context, intergenerational transmission of negative mathematics experiences during the Junior Secondary School (JSS) era of the 1980s and 1990s created widespread socio-emotional resistance to the subject. This dynamic operates as a self-fulfilling prophecy: societal narratives normalize mathematical incompetence, prompting students to internalize avoidance behaviour before receiving formal instruction. The phrase “Maths is difficult” was as ubiquitous as dust on every household appliance during Harmattan. Predecessors reminded us of the difficult nature of math in their perception, worldview, or experience.

2. LEARNER APATHY: Maybe due to the previous point, learners come to class without interest in the subject. This is an affective variable and requires pedagogical interventions. Learner apathy is characterized by low intrinsic motivation and diminished self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). In response, joint initiatives by GES and NaCCA have emphasized activity-based learning and mnemonic strategies—such as instructional songs, rhythmic counting, and repetition of multiplication tables—to engage learners at the primary and basic levels. Workshops organized for two groups of teachers from the primary and JHS attempted to train teachers with strategies related to inducing learners’ interests with songs and rhymes. One memorable mnemonic is: “I am counting one; what is one: one is just alone and alone it shall be… Two pair…” Others use the recital of the multiplication table: “Two one two, two two four” etc. While these early-grade interventions foster foundational recall, they often fail to transition students toward higher-order cognitive processing (Bloom, 1956) if instructional practices do not evolve beyond rote learning (drill-and-practice) into conceptual understanding.

3. PAUCITY OF SPECIALIZED TEACHERS: Teachers with strong backgrounds in the subject are mostly hard to find. The few willing ones lack that strong mathematical background to handle the subject well. This is a primary structural limitation in Ghanaian mathematics education due to the deficit in Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1986). A significant proportion of non-specialist basic school educators possess inadequate specialized mathematical training. When educators lack confidence in content mastery, instructional delivery shifts toward rigid, algorithmic methods rather than conceptual exploration. To compensate for content deficits, educators must leverage global open educational resources (OERs) and evidence-based instructional strategies. Also, effective pedagogical mediation by a competent faculty can reverse decades of learned helplessness and learner apathy, enabling non-STEM students to successfully master complex quantitative disciplines. Teachers who find themselves in this situation must do formative research on specific difficult areas used globally to meet the learning objective.

(Growing up myself, I struggled with Mathematics. This shaped my choice of courses chosen to read at the pre-tertiary and tertiary levels. I did everything possible to carefully dodge what I deemed calculable subjects; anything with Mathematics as a General Arts student was strategically dropped. In the Arts class, you would find me among those elective classes that had the most females. When I had the opportunity to take up my undergraduate studies, I chose institutions with courses that would never make me meet any form of math. I was enjoying till they introduced Statistics: that course with the finding of Mean, Mode and Median; drawing or constructing graphs or charts, tables etc. My feeling in that undergraduate class was due to learner apathy. Even though the lecturer was great, my perception or traditional mindset hindered my progress under these circumstances. However, the lecturer at graduate school was of the strongest view that the problem with Mathematics is the teachers and not the students. He proved it, to not only me but thousands of postgraduate students in Educational Statistics at Valley View University. This paved the way for my interest to take up programmes in Information Technology and Business Administration.)

4. LACK OF LESSON PREPARATION: The Ghana Education Service considers lesson notes preparation as a vital part of teaching and learning and would want no excuse when teachers are caught without lesson notes.

Instructional Planning and Technology Integration Effective instructional delivery depends heavily on comprehensive lesson preparation. Within the GES regulatory framework, the lesson plan serves as a blueprint for scaffolded instruction, formative assessment design, and differentiation. Recent policy interventions, such as the distribution of government-issued laptops to public school teachers under teacher union initiatives (e.g., GNAT, NAGRAT), faced implementation friction due to communication gaps regarding digital lesson preparation. Digitized lesson planning is designed to enhance research, integrate multimedia resources, anticipate conceptual misconceptions, and streamline supervisory vetting by Heads of Institutions and School Improvement Support Officers (SISOs). Rigorous lesson planning mitigates instructional ambiguity, rendering abstract mathematical concepts accessible.

Teachers readily took the laptops just because they were misinformed they would allegedly not prepare lesson notes again. Maybe that was one effective propaganda to dump the laptops on teachers and other non-teaching staff under GNAT, NAGRAT, GES etc. However, the real facts about the lesson notes in relation to the laptops was to produce typed hardcopies and softcopies of lesson notes for vetting and approval. Most headteachers, SISOs (Circuit Supervisors) and heads of monitoring and supervision are hated for demanding teachers produce lesson notes. The lesson note enables the teacher to do thorough research, watch related videos, anticipate questions and answers, generate meaningful examples to make the teaching and learning more practical and realistic, among others. When teachers of Mathematics, just like any other subject, prepare well, aspects that would have made the subject difficult become easier for both teachers and learners.

Once the aforementioned reasons can be associated with Mathematics, the narrative that mathematics is inherently unapproachable for non-science students is contradicted by contemporary educational needs. Overcoming the mathematics challenge in Ghana requires a multi-pronged approach: combating socio-cultural stereotypes, strengthening teacher preparation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, enforcing rigorous lesson preparation through digital tools, and recognizing the essential role of quantitative literacy across all academic disciplines.

It is not enough to write it off for students offering Arts as opined by Presidential Staffer Nana Yaa Gyantua. Even though her views look convincing and can favour persons who will likely struggle like I did going to the SHS to read Arts, a quick look at the courses given to students qualified for CSSPS transcends what we knew. With the subject combination of courses at SHS currently, it is difficult to determine who is reading General Arts, Visual Arts, Science, Business, Agriculture etc. Languages—French, Arabic, and Spanish—which used to be a preserve of General Arts students, are now offered by all. Art and Design, which was a perfect fit for Visual Arts students, can now be offered by Business and Science students too. These apply for all other programmes run at the SHS. Times have indeed changed.

This interdisciplinary structure reflects the evolving demands of tertiary education and the modern workforce and tertiary flexibility. Secondary school pathways no longer strictly dictate tertiary options; Arts graduates increasingly transition into health sciences, technology, and business administration fields requiring quantitative literacy. Also, there is a universal application of quantitative skills where core competencies such as statistical literacy, data analysis, and visual representations (charts, graphs, central tendencies) are essential across all academic fields, including the humanities and social sciences.

As an educationist, I believe this is to ensure SHS graduates fit in all available courses that tertiary institutions offer. It is likely to see a General Arts student go into medical school or school of pharmacy. Someone with Science or Home Economics background can read law. No General Arts student can ever do without Mathematics, especially in this new SHS system.

Martin Elorm Dogbo
Bilingual Specialist in Education, Communication and Management

[email protected]