Ghana's Maths and Science ranking based on 2011 data

Accra, June 17, GNA – The Global Educational ranking that placed Ghana at the bottom of 76 nations in Science and Mathematics, was based on a 2011 Data, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Education Minister said on Tuesday.

The ranking was done by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Speaking at the Meet the Press series in Accra, Prof Opoku-Agyemang said although Ghana did not take part in PISA, its data from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was re-scaled onto the PISA scale.

This, she said, raised a number of concerns, which were tabled for discussion and analysis at the World Education Forum 2015 held at Incheon, Korea.

Prof Opoku-Agyemang, who was speaking on the State of Education in Ghana, said the report sought to highlight a global problem of the low scores of students in Mathematics and Science, especially in the low income countries.

She said the strategy adopted by the authors, appeared to be selective to enable them to achieve their aim of linking the country’s economic status with that of the performance in Mathematics and Science.

The Minister said the strategy further raised a lot of questions because it failed to recognize that Ghana’s scores in TIMSS since 2003 had improved over the years.

She said the argument was that the quality of schooling in a country was a powerful indicator of the wealth that those countries would produce in the long run.

The Minister noted that the report was intended to influence debate over development goals, and to facilitate the adoption of target that ensured that all 15 year olds achieved basic level of skills.

She said the report received mixed reactions from the Forum.

“While some thought it was meant for rich countries, that it was contextually inappropriate for poor countries and that it gives an incomplete picture of what education is; others thought it made the important point that access alone will not guarantee a country’s prosperity and that of the world,” Prof Opoku-Agyemang stated.

“Its conclusions were therefore enough to propel the world into action as some rich OECD and non-OECD countries also fell significantly below PISA score points in Mathematics and Science,” she added.

Other countries in the lowest ranks together with Ghana were Oman, Morocco, Honduras, and South Africa which were ranked 72, 73, 74 and 75 respectively.

She said for Ghana, the report emphasized the challenges Government had already identified as far as students learning outcomes in Mathematics and Science were concerned.

In that regard, she observed that governments over the years had introduced interventions to address the challenge, which she said, included the rigorous re-training of teachers in Science and Mathematics, including plans to establish centres for the training of Science and Mathematics teachers in basic schools.

Others are the rehabilitation of existing science resource centres, to train teachers at both the basic and secondary levels of education, basic school computerization programme, leading to the supply of computers and accessories to schools and teachers.

Source: GNA

AIMS-Ghana to improve study of Maths

Donkorkrom (E/R), June 3, GNA - The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Ghana (AIMS-Ghana) is embarking on outreach programmes to promote teaching and learning of Mathematics at all levels of education in Ghana.

The programme would target teachers and pupils in the most deprived areas to help bridge the gap between pupils/students in rural areas and their counterparts in urban centres.

The initiative is a partnership between the Government through the Ministry of Education and AIMS-Ghana to train teachers in modern ways of teaching Mathematics and demystify the subject as being considered as an abstract one.

AIMS is a non-profit making Pan-African Network of Mathematical Centres in Africa.

The Kwahu Afram Plains North District is being selected to pilot the teacher training exercise.

To this end, a total of 50 teachers at the pre-tertiary level in the District have been selected for a five-day intensive training at Donkorkrom.

Speaking on behalf of Professor Francis K. A. Allotey, the President of AIMS-Ghana, to open the five-day training programme, Ms Sarah Osei, a Career Development and External Relations Manager for AIMS-Ghana, stated that the teaching and learning of Mathematics was a problem in Ghana.

Therefore, she said, AIMS-Ghana was committed to liaising with all stakeholders in education to raise pupils’ interest in learning the subject.

She noted Mathematics was the bedrock of Modern Economies, therefore, it was critical to whip up the interest in studying Mathematics to demystify it.

“Despite the importance of Mathematical and Quantitative Skills, there is a decline in the number of skilled Mathematics teachers at the pre-tertiary level in Ghana,” she said.

According to Ms Osei, Mathematics equipped individuals to think logically and become problem solvers, explaining that one of the key skills needed in Ghana’s developmental agenda was the development of Mathematical talents.

She said AIMS, as Africa’s first network of centres of excellence for post-graduate scientific training, research, industry and public engagement in Mathematical Sciences, had the objective of delivering excellent teaching, research and education in Mathematical Sciences.

“AIMS has it as a mission to enable Africa’s brightest students flourish as independent thinkers, problem solvers and innovators capable of propelling Africa’s future scientific, industrial, educational and economic self-sufficiency,” she added.

Ms Osei urged the participants to take advantage of the training and share their challenges in teaching Mathematics with the facilitators for a holistic training that could impart directly on pupils’ performance.

Mr Gabriel Adu, the District Education Director for Afram Plains North, expressed appreciation to AIMS-Ghana for choosing the district for the pilot project, and pledged his outfit’s support in making the training programme a success and to help raise performance in mathematics in the district.

AIMS has established centres of excellence in South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon and Tanzania and aims at establishing 15 centres of excellence across Africa by 2025.

Meanwhile, the Institute has produced more than 731 graduates from 41 African nations with more than 30 per cent of these scholars being women.

Source: GNA

Lack of understanding of Mathematics cause of ‘dumsor’ - Prof. Anku

The head of the Ghana Mathematics society, Professor Sitsofe Anku has attributed Ghana's failure to solve the persistent energy crisis to a lack of understanding of the subject of Mathematics.

Prof Anku, speaking on Adom FM on Thursday, said that Ghana would have easily solved the four-year-old power crisis if it had comprehensive understanding of the subject and can readily apply it in our everyday lives.

“Mathematics can solve the Dumsor problem…principles and methods of mathematics ensure the efficiency of everything we do and that everything we do contains Mathematics…yes seriously [if our mathematics is good, we can solve Dumsor problem]…,” he said.

The Professor who led the revolution in Singapore’s educational system was reacting to an OECD report which places Ghana at the bottom of the pecking order in the study of Mathematics.

Prof. Anku said this should be attributed to the lackadaisical attitude of teachers and students towards the study of the core subject in schools adding that teachers have failed to let students see the relationship between the subject and everyday life.

“There are some of them [teachers], maybe the majority, they don’t understand Mathematics in the first place…some of them even didn’t pass the Mathematics well, they fear the subject and introduce the same fear to their students…there is always the fear of learning mathematics…there is a mental block when it come to mathematics…,” he said.

Maths students, he said, must always be taken out of the classroom to learn how related the theories they learn in the classrooms are to happenings in everyday life and urged teachers to do less of the theory and do more practicals.

As part of the solution to the age-old problem, he said, the Maths Society has been holding workshops to train teachers on how to teach the subject for fun and not for strict examination purposes.

“We are too much examination focus, so students don’t enjoy the subjects they do…we should wait more and let students enjoy the subject…,” he said.

Prof Anku reiterated the need to do away with the fear the subject presents as it is the basis for solving most human problems including the energy crisis.


Source: adomonline.com

Education Ministry to consider inclusive educational system

Accra, May 11, GNA - Professor Sitsofe Anku, the Director of the Meagasa Mathematics Academy, says teachers contribute to the increasing poor performance of students in the study of Mathematics across the country.

Prof Anku said most Mathematics teachers had failed the subject during examinations and decided to use teaching as the last resort to earn money, stressing that teaching was a profession, and needed professional training.The professor made the comments in Accra at a national training of trainers of Mathematics, which brought together some selected basic and Junior High School teachers across the country under the theme “Revamping Mathematics Education in Ghana Through Transformation”.

The training which began from April 27 to May 8, with support from the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.

The trainers were taken through subjects such as breaking mental barrier in Mathematics, co-operative learning strategies, Mathematics modelling, Algebra, magic square and deductive reasoning on platonic solids.

Prof Anku said the training was necessitated because there had been a massive failure in Mathematics from basic to the tertiary and had become a national concern which needed holistic approach to address the menace.

“If teachers are knowledgeable in Mathematics, it makes it easy for students to comprehend and appreciate the subject thereby impacting positively on their performance,” he added.

He said the country’s curriculum was geared towards preparing for examinations and that their outfits prepared students to be analytical and tackle real life problem solutions.

“Teachers need to understand the principles and methods of mathematics to be able to teach students for easy apprehension and that the Academy has introduced software which help them to understand mathematics concepts”.

He encouraged all students to appreciate the study of Mathematics, since there was Mathematics in every profession, stressing that the Academy would soon launch a book christened “Mathematics Everywhere”, a career guide to motivate students to like mathematics.

Prof Anku said the Academy holds camps for students and workshops for teachers to nurture talents of students in mathematics, adding that students who have gone through the Academy have passed successfully.

“We had students who have failed in mathematics in the West African Senior Secondary School, but the Academy use only three months to teach them and had grade ‘A’ in Mathematics”.

Some of the teachers who spoke with the Ghana News Agency expressed satisfaction about the programme, stating that they have been transformed because the training involves more practical concepts.

They said the training had been beneficial in that they were allowed to explore to come out with their own concepts and derive formulas for them.


Source: Ghana News Agency

Students fail mathematics because their teachers failed in school – Prof. Anku

Accra, May 11, GNA - Professor Sitsofe Anku, the Director of the Meagasa Mathematics Academy, says teachers contribute to the increasing poor performance of students in the study of Mathematics across the country.

Prof Anku said most Mathematics teachers had failed the subject during examinations and decided to use teaching as the last resort to earn money, stressing that teaching was a profession, and needed professional training.The professor made the comments in Accra at a national training of trainers of Mathematics, which brought together some selected basic and Junior High School teachers across the country under the theme “Revamping Mathematics Education in Ghana Through Transformation”.

The training which began from April 27 to May 8, with support from the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.

The trainers were taken through subjects such as breaking mental barrier in Mathematics, co-operative learning strategies, Mathematics modelling, Algebra, magic square and deductive reasoning on platonic solids.

Prof Anku said the training was necessitated because there had been a massive failure in Mathematics from basic to the tertiary and had become a national concern which needed holistic approach to address the menace.

“If teachers are knowledgeable in Mathematics, it makes it easy for students to comprehend and appreciate the subject thereby impacting positively on their performance,” he added.

He said the country’s curriculum was geared towards preparing for examinations and that their outfits prepared students to be analytical and tackle real life problem solutions.

“Teachers need to understand the principles and methods of mathematics to be able to teach students for easy apprehension and that the Academy has introduced software which help them to understand mathematics concepts”.

He encouraged all students to appreciate the study of Mathematics, since there was Mathematics in every profession, stressing that the Academy would soon launch a book christened “Mathematics Everywhere”, a career guide to motivate students to like mathematics.

Prof Anku said the Academy holds camps for students and workshops for teachers to nurture talents of students in mathematics, adding that students who have gone through the Academy have passed successfully.

“We had students who have failed in mathematics in the West African Senior Secondary School, but the Academy use only three months to teach them and had grade ‘A’ in Mathematics”.

Some of the teachers who spoke with the Ghana News Agency expressed satisfaction about the programme, stating that they have been transformed because the training involves more practical concepts.

They said the training had been beneficial in that they were allowed to explore to come out with their own concepts and derive formulas for them.


Source: Ghana News Agency