Prof. Stephen Onah, Director/Chief Executive, National Mathematical Centre (NMC), has called on the three tiers of government to provide incentives for mathematics teachers to encourage teaching and learning of the subject.

Onah made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during the closing ceremony of a foundation postgraduate course on Statistical Inference at Sheda in Kwali Area Council.

According to him, poor teaching methodology and inadequate incentive schemes for teachers are some of the major factors hampering mathematics education in the country.

“The state of mathematics in the country generally is still going through development, but has not reached its destination.

“The problem largely is from the grassroots, particularly from the level of secondary school and we need to improve on that level.

“We need to have the correct calibre of teaching staff, particularly in mathematics because it is very vital to other areas of learning.

“We need to have enough teachers in the area of mathematics, quality teachers and some form of incentives.

“Government should introduce some incentives to encourage the teaching and learning of mathematics in the country,” he said.

The director also said that there was need to provide mathematics teachers with teaching modules for primary and secondary schools as well as production of mathematics workbooks.

Onah, however, said that NMC was committed to upholding any vision that would help eradicate mathematics phobia among students in schools.

Similarly, Prof. Funmilayo Saporu, the Coordinator of statistical programme, NMC, called on Nigerian scholars and students of tertiary institutions to develop passion for research as such would help in the development of the country.

Saporu said that academic research played an important role in the development of education and also contributed to developing knowledge in any field of study.

He said that the three weeks postgraduate course on “Statistical Inference” which was concluded during the weekend had three sections namely: parametric, non parametric and baseyard.

A participant at the programme, Mrs Adah Victor, said the three weeks postgraduate course was very interesting adding that she would use the knowledge acquired to expand her research for the development of the country.

No fewer than 35 participants attended the three weeks foundation postgraduate course on Statistical Inference at the National Mathematical Centre in Sheda. (NAN)

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