Daily, groups and individuals continue to
reiterate that unless Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education was given the deserved attention, society’s development will not happen at the pace and depth it should.
As this call for action gathers
steam, contemporary schools are continuously searching for the best solutions to make teaching and learning not only fun, but also impactful on their students, as well as help
prepare them for the rigours of higher learning.
STEM courses, experts say have proven to be very crucial to the nation’s technological advancement and mathematics, which has
historically been seen by students as an
unattractive subject is a key component of STEM education. As the scenario continues to unfold, ENO-ABASI SUNDAY reports that while the call for enhanced STEM education is upswing, proprietress of Heyday School, Lagos,
Mrs. Susan Amuta, is of the view that
knowledge of mathematics remains pivotal in the country’s advancement in science and technology.
The educationist, who said simple
steps like abacus and speed mathematics among others can help banish mathematics phobia among students, added that this explains the reason the school is paying
immense attention to the subject.
SCIENCE, the world over is primarily the bedrock for sustainable development.
In a country like Nigeria, where scientific research is hampered by a litany of factors, principal among which are
infrastructural development, dearth of funding as. well as that of facilities, the situation remains quite pathetic and calls for greater attention by relevant authorities.
In this direction, calls for greater attention to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, remains
germane because in the final analysis, these courses have the capacity to drive the country
forward as has been the case in developed countries, even though some developed countries are yet to achieve their full potential along this line.
For instance, according to statistics, in the United States, many high-paying STEM jobs go unfilled as candidates lack necessary technical skills, training or post-secondary degrees. With
millions unemployed, this skills gap remains alarming.
In Illustrating the skills gap in America, the report titled, “The Importance of STEM
Education” said, “STEM jobs are projected to grow by 17 per cent and to produce 2.8 million new job openings. In contrast, job growth in other professions is projected to be less than 10 per cent.
According to McKinsey & Company, a
multinational management consulting firm, which conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to evaluate management decisions among others, 64 per cent of
companies in America have vacancies for STEM positions due to a lack of qualified applicants.
It added that by 2020, the United States will demand 123 million highly-skilled workers, but there will only be 50 million qualified people to fill these roles.
In attempting an answer to the reason behind the inadequate supply of manpower for the
STEM jobs, the report explained that, “Over one
fifth of all students (in America) fail to graduate with their class.
In addition to this, the United States is ranked 47th out of 144 countries in the quality of its mathematics and science education, and only eight per cent of American college students
major in engineering, while only five per cent major in computer science and mathematics.”
With revelations that STEM workers typically earn 26 per cent more than those in non-STEM positions, STEM remains a prominent focus and education policy priority of the public and
private sector in both America, Nigeria and the rest of the world.
Conscious of this shortfall, initiatives like the
“Educate to Innovate” campaign in America focuses on improving the participation and performance of America’s students in STEM with the hope of increasing American workers’ competitiveness in the next decade.
The campaign brings together leading
companies, foundations, non-profits, and
science and engineering societies, to promote initiatives such as Change the Equation,
National Lab Day, and the White House Science Fair.
From the foregoing, mathematics remains a key component in the realisation of STEM education
in any given society. That perhaps explain why the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) in 2013 came up
with the lesson planning based on modern teaching approaches for the subject.
According to NERDC, “The teaching and learning of mathematics in Nigeria is associated with
several challenges, such as the high level of deficiency in mathematical knowledge of school students. This calls for resorting to modern
approaches to teaching mathematics at the school level. The teaching of mathematics in Nigeria is characterised by the traditional
formula-based approach with emphasis on computation and little reference to mathematical reasoning and problem solving.
The body added that teaching is done
mechanically by the teacher first, presenting a formula or rule or algorithm, then solving some textbook examples, and finally giving some exercises for students to solve.
This type of teaching, it stressed was
mechanical and teacher-centered. It is obsolete since in that approach as mathematics is learned instrumentally by rote memorisation, without meaningful understanding of the concept taught.
This way, it contended,
students become frustrated in the face of
apparently meaningless symbols that are
manipulated. They regard mathematics as a static subject with a set of algorithms to be applied mechanically to carryout undertake mathematical exercises/drills.
In contrast to the traditional approach, the modern teaching approach, NERCD said is learner-centered or child-centered, and activity–based, helping the learner to develop, and construct a meaningful understanding of the mathematical concept taught.
The outfit, therefore urged participants at its workshop to focus on the constructivist forms of teaching and learning, which leads to revised beliefs about excellence in teaching and learning and about the roles of both teachers and
students in the process saying, “In this way, you get your students to learn mathematics with meaning. By so doing, the students’ educational experiences are activated developing new concepts as new knowledge is constructed.
Active participation of your students is therefore imperative for learning.”
Only recently, the African Institute for
Mathematical Sciences in realisation of the importance of this trend, said it would advocate STEM education for women and youth in Africa to drive socio-economic development.
In her September 2014 address at the 3rd
Annual African First Ladies Discussion on
Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM), Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazanna Dlamini
Zuma, had in similar vein stated categorically that African development will not happen at the pace and depth it needs to without the empowerment of girls, youth and women, especially in the STEM areas.
She emphasised that the development of skills in these areas is needed “to modernise agriculture and agro-processing; to build,
expand and maintain our infrastructure;to
develop manufacturing and add value to our natural resources and to mitigate and adapt to
climate change.” Proprietress of Heyday School, Lagos, Mrs
Suzan Amuta, is bothered that even at this point where global emphasis is shifting to STEM
courses, Nigeria is still recording less than 50 per cent pass rate in mathematics in the two
major national external examinations for
secondary school students- the West African Examination Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) organised by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the
one organised by the Minna, Niger State-based National Examination Council (NECO).
On what this unhealthy development portends for the future of the nation and how to set the country on the right rail, Mrs Amuta said
teacher training in the sciences as well as introduction and sustenance of vocational training were of great importance.
Her words, “We can fix this by training
teachers in the sciences, introduction and
sustenance of vocational training, guidance and counselling and by lowering entry requirements for science courses.
The last point is
particularly interesting to me as I have always wondered why the entry requirements for the sciences were so stringent.
“Take for example the requirement that a
student who desires to study the sciences must also possess a credit level pass in English
Language.
The student has five credits in the
core sciences and yet the qualifying authorities insist that without a credit pass in English Language, the student cannot study his/her
course of choice in the sciences. You then wonder in which language the student wrote the
examinations and got credit level pass in at least five subjects.
The proprietress continued, “That is just an instance of the dysfunctional nature of Nigeria’s assessment process. Our education system and curriculum need continuous evaluation to bring
it up to speed with the changing times.
Education should be engaging, interesting and fun so students are able to visualise and indeed live the subjects that they are taught; see how the subjects correlate to everyday living, and there will likely be improvement in the attitude and pass rate in mathematics and the sciences.
Without a strong focus on the sciences,
Nigeria’s quest to become a developed nation via industrialisation will not be achievable.”
At a micro level, Amuta said the school was taking some steps to improve students’ performance in mathematics.
For instance, “At the pre-school stage, we
make the children active in mathematics
through the use of real objects and activities that emerge from the children through music, arts and craft, sorting by colour and size, matching pictures to objects and arranging pictures in correct sequence.
This is to help the children progress from concrete experiences to
more abstract ones and to internalise
mathematical concepts naturally in order to eliminate memorisation.
“At the primary school level, we organise
mathematics quizzes and inter-class
competitions. Mental mathematics, such as abacus and speed mathematics, are taught for
mental alertness and intuitive thinking.
We also make mathematics fun for the children through games, mathematical songs and one-to-one teaching.”
Seeing how important mathematics is in laying a solid foundation that would facilitate excelling in the sciences, Amuta said, “Mathematics should be made real to the children through concrete experiences, basic concepts such as
one-to-one correspondence and classification equivalence.
In addition, we introduced a reward
system for mathematics skills and scholarship for students who excel in mathematics.”
She continued, “It is not a single-incentive package; a mix of incentives help to engage the interest of students from different angles and levels. What may appeal to one student, another
student may not find it as engaging.
However, having a potpourri of incentives help to ensure
that all the students are engaged and also boost teachers ability to engender and retain the interest of the students in mathematics.”
Commenting on which method or device
among the mixed bag of incentives was
particularly helpful in improving pupils’
mathematics skills at this level of education, she said, “A remarkable method that we have been using and which has made mathematics easier for the children is the abacus training
programme.
It has removed the fear of mathematics from the students and empowered them to calculate large numbers without the aid of an electronic calculator. Indeed, adopting abacus solutions in our bid to enhance our students’ love and appreciation for mathematics, has been very effective as a tool.
“The introduction of abacus training programme has brought about a remarkable growth in the
interest and ability of our students in
mathematics.
This has rubbed off on other subjects since a strong interest in one subject
naturally helps students maintain interest in other subjects.
“Abacus mathematics has improved the logical and analytical minds of the children. It has also improved and sharpened other skills like vigilance, spatial relation, listening skills,
creativity, memory power, patience and
precision. It has made them resilient, confident and has given them the ‘I can’ attitude.
As I mentioned earlier, it rubs off on other subjects because if you are very good in one subject, there is a tendency to transfer that ability to
other subjects. What we are seeing is that the strong interest in mathematics has naturally enhanced their interest in other subjects.
She revealed that, “One of abacus’ most
important qualities is enhancing the pace at which students can reason logically. Imagineempowering a student with the ability to
calculate numbers and solve equations at a
speed faster than electronic calculators.
Though
that ability will be more noticeable and indeed
useful in mathematics, it is naturally transferred
to other subjects; the students can think faster
and are able to find solutions to problems in
other subjects at a faster rate than they were
used to.”
Questioned abacus should be made part of the
education system by concerned bodies, she
retorted, “I would encourage schools to embrace
the idea of abacus programme and recommend
it to others. At Heyday School, we have
benefited immensely from the method in the
sense that it has helped to remove the chore
and fear our children had for the subject.
The Children now look forward to mathematics
classes with enthusiasm because abacus makes
the learning of mathematics fun, easy and
enjoyable.”
Drawing from her personal experience, Amuta
said growing up, “There was a general phobia
for mathematics, which precluded students who
would have developed a keen interest in the
subject from following through. I must say that I
did not love mathematics because of that
general apathy towards it at the time. We
recognised that there was apathy towards
mathematics at the very early stage, even
before our school was founded. This is why our
vision is to make sure we remove the fear of
mathematics from our students and equip them
with the knowledge, skills and principles that
would make the subject interesting and fun.
Asked to enumerate the challenges of
administering a school in Nigeria from her
prism, she said, “There were several challenges
in schools administration in Nigeria. Chief
among them are inadequate funding, which
impedes the ability of schools to provide the
infrastructure and services that they would
ideally like to provide in order to give students
the best environment to enhance their scholarly
abilities.
“Another is in keeping pace with the ever
changing needs of information and
communication technology, (ICT), which as you
know changes at a rapid pace. ICT has become
an integral part of education, helping to make
teaching-learning not only fun and interesting,
but also ensuring that the vast amount of
knowledge that students and teachers can
possibly tap into is limitless.
“The third challenge is inadequate number of
teachers ,and when they are available, their
skills set is not up to date. When teachers
graduate from their various institutions, they no
longer go straight to the classrooms to start
teaching. You’d have to invest resources in
terms of time and funds to train them, scale up
their skills in order for them to be fit for
purpose. I could go on and on.
But in spite of these challenges, the education system is not a lost cause, particularly with the intervention of
private sector education providers. Some
schools have done particularly well in providing the required facilities and trained instructors, and it shows in the quality of the students that they produce.”
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