The Director-General of National Mathematical Centre, Prof Sam Ale is of the opinion that even though love is a universal language, it is not used for advancement or knowledge. In this interview with KUNI TYESSI, he dispels fears concerning the dreaded subject and advocates that mathematics is the easy way to life and the developer of the human brain.
The year 2012 has been declared as Nigeria’s year of Mathematics. What are your expectations for the country especially in terms of ensuring that students get the best of its teaching?
I’m happy that the initiative has the approval of President Goodluck Jonathan and it is going to be a popular programme for the whole year because there are many activities to be carried out and will include students and pupils.
For now, many people have apathy for mathematics and we hope that by the grace of god and based on the activities we are going to carry out, people will begin to develop interest in mathematics. So my expectation is that the usual fear, apathy and dislike for mathematics will be removed so that many will begin to embrace it because it is virtually in every field of study.
I do hope that by the time we carry out some of our activities, especially the Miss Mathematics beauty competition, because the case of ladies is worse, many ladies I know will be clamouring to be the beauty queen of Nigerian mathematics because that will now be their interest. So I look forward to the series of programmes that will be of great interest to Nigerians.
Are there programmes being organised for teachers training in mathematics?
I am glad to say we have written many books on teaching modules which is basically for teachers and that will help them know what to teach and how to teach at different levels.
So teaching will improve with some of the materials we have produced and many of them will be of great benefit to teachers and indirectly to students.
Are there trainings being conducted to enforce this?
Of course, I just mentioned only one aspect. One of the things that NMC does is to organise programmes for teachers across the country. Some of them will say since they finished from school, they have never had any training programme and you know that education development is an asset .so the training programme has been spread all over the country so that the teachers can be very well encouraged.
Mr President declared not just a quarter or half of the year but the whole year as the national mathematical year. What must have prompted him to do so?
You must understand that the president is an academic who believes that education is power. This is the first time that Nigeria is having a president who is well read, somebody with a PhD. He has known the value of education and is stressing that education is very important for any national development.
You emphasised some weeks ago that financial mathematics is a viable tool for national development in every economy. How can that be reflected in the Nigerian setting?
Definitely mathematics is needed in the financial market and many people have not seen its need. You may be an economist, accountant, etc and not see the importance of mathematical content in what you do and the knowledge of mathematics will make you very sound in what you do.
We introduced this programme at post-graduate level because none of the Nigerian universities offers this course and I’m happy that because of advocacy, many are embracing it.
Mathematics is a subject like any other and yet different from the others, probably because it deals more with figures? Explain what makes it different and as a professional, what would you give as reasons of apathy towards mathematics from students?
The only universal language is Mathematics…
What about love?
(General laughter) There is a difference between the two. Yes, in the sense that we all have love in our hearts for people we cherish but you don’t use it for advancement or knowledge.
It’s a universal language because in all languages in the world, the content of mathematics must be found and it’s the basis of many deliveries and it is applicable to all things.
What are some of the challenges you have been exposed to in a bid to ensure that mathematics is accepted and appreciated by all Nigerians?
People have a mindset for the subject and are difficult. They try to run away from it because they fear it. It is the initial problem and challenge we are battling with. It can be likened to the case of someone who wants to fight and he looks at the opponent and says ‘oh, he’s so big and I can’t fight him’. With such a mindset, he is already discouraged and will lose the fight.
So this is the first and we want to overcome it and to improve teaching and learning and to improve research. Secondly and unfortunately, you will discover that we don’t have enough mathematics teachers and we see journalists, biologists, geographers who are not professionals and haven’t got enough mathematical skills teaching mathematics.
You will also discover from an experiment we carried out that some teachers cannot even write and pass the exams meant for the class they teach. So it ends up becoming a case of a failure teaching people who will end up as failures.
Thirdly, money answers many things. The teachers teaching mathematics need to be given special allowances so that they can be encouraged. We have printed many books for teachers and you know teachers don’t like buying books and many cannot afford them and even if they can, they don’t buy.
The fear of mathematics has led many students to miracle centres and at the end of it all they fall prey to fraudsters. What advice do you have for students who are planning to sit for exams and judging from the fact that they need mathematics to gain admission?
They should by all means because the centres are not genuine and one day they have to defend it. I will encourage the students to practice mathematics because they will need it in all they do and once they know mathematics, nothing will be difficult for them.
Some persons claim to have carried out some research on mathematicians and the results proved that people who study mathematics for years end up with abnormalities because the subject has taken its toll on them. As a professional, comment on this.
(Laughter) Do you want to say something is wrong with me as a professor of mathematics?
I’m only asking!
Well! I have been battling with that assumption. I remember when I went to National Institute for policy for Strategic Studies in Kuru, Plateau State; some came to me and said something must be wrong with a professor of Mathematics.
One of them who is a general came to me after two weeks and said ‘I have always had it in me that nobody can be a professor of mathematics because most of them behave as if they are mad. But I have observed you for two weeks and you are normal and a gentleman. So I wonder why people have this wrong notion.
Mathematics makes you to be more disciplined. If you know it, no other person can take it. I hope you have also seen me to be normal because we are interacting. So I want to tell you very candidly that mathematics is the easy way to life. It develops your brain rather than turning your brain to the other side.
Part of the blame has also been pushed to nature because some researchers claim that mathematics is male oriented because men are logical thinkers and talk less and so are prone to understanding it unlike women who are emotional thinkers and talk more which is the reason behind their love for English language.
Some have also being said to have developed a complex, hence the dislike for the subject. Comment on this as a professional and one who is vast in the psychology of the subject.
Part of it is true. During my time, we hardly had females reading Mathematics. I graduated from a class of 16 and there were no females amongst us. However, if you go to other fields like biology, education, etc you will see many of them and they even outnumber the men.
So I have just confirmed what you have said. I want to encourage them that it is not a male-oriented subject because anybody can do it. The first vice chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof Grace Alele Williams studied Mathematics in education. So we are taking steps towards correcting this.
How are the president and the ministry supporting this laudable project?
The government of Nigeria is sponsoring the project and is in full support. So in principle, we have the support of the government. We do hope that the budget for this project will soon be out for this allocation. So success is already on the way.
The minister of education has called me severally and we had a meetings and she told me to do something that will ensure that people are passing mathematics because it is affecting the image of Nigeria and many cannot gain admission if they do not pass mathematics as a basic requirement.
So I’m happy that government is solidly behind us. They are trying to see that we are given funds to run our programmes and that we also achieve other things we are going to set out to do.
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