The Federal Government has been told to extend its ongoing effort in boosting the teaching and learning of mathematics to all secondary schools in the country.
The Kogi Deputy-Governor, Mr Yomi Awoniyi, who made the call in Lokoja on Tuesday said the call became necessary for the country to achieve its goal of becoming one of the best 20 economies in the world by 2020.
Awoniyi, who spoke at the opening of a four-day capacity building workshop for 208 mathematics teachers in Unity Schools, said that the effort should be extended to secondary schools in the 36 states for overall improvement in the teaching of mathematics and other science subjects.
He commended the workshop organisers for coming up with the event, saying that the State Government would work with the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), to organise similar workshops for teachers in secondary schools in Kogi.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Mrs Grace Elebiyo, said that the workshop would go a long way in addressing the high rate of failure in mathematics among secondary school students.
Elebiyo said that the State Government was eager to collaborate with the NMC and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to improve the learning and teaching of mathematics.
Prof. Jonathan Ogidi, who represented the Director-General of the NMC, said that the workshop was part of efforts being made to address the phobia for mathematics by secondary school students in the country.
He said that the declining performance of students in mathematics had become a serious concern for government and parents, stressing the need for concerted efforts to be made to demystify the fear for the subject by Nigerians, especially youths.
Ogidi, who is the Dean, School of Mathematical Biology at the NMC, said that the institution had mapped out strategies to confront the challenge, urging states and other stakeholders to join hands with the centre and TETFUND to achieve the desired goals.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Correspondent at the workshop reports that mathematics text books were distributed free to participants at the workshop which ends on Aug. 31. (NAN)