Gov Dankwambo laments dearth of graduate maths teachers in Gombe

GOMBE STATE —Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State has lamented the situation whereby there was only one graduate Mathematics teacher in state, saying that his administration would take holistic view of the problem with a view to resolving it.

Dankwambo was reacting to the observations by the Director-General of the National Mathematical Centre, NMC, Abuja, Prof Sam Ale who paid him a visit.

The governor said: ‘’From the report I got from the committee we set up to evaluate the situation in education sector, I think we have only one Mathematics teacher in Gombe State.

‘’But we have taken a holistic review of the educational system,’’ by starting a pilot programme on the issue in 20 schools (about 10 primary schools and 10 secondary schools),” he said.

The governor also promised to partner with NMC to realize the dreams of the students in the subject.

Earlier, Prof Ale had noted that Gombe had poor records in the study of Mathematics in the whole federation.

He recalled that during period of ‘’Olympia Project,’’ states in the North like Sokoto and Yobe bought the forms and later made representation by sending their students, adding however that Gombe State never featured in the exercise.

“Every year, we send students to go and compete with others outside the country but we have never had students from Gombe and I am happy to mention to you that Nigeria started six years ago and we are able to be on the Bronze medal table,” Prof Ale added.

In response to this, Governor Dankwambo said, “ No Gombe child has been given the opportunity to study Mathematics.

‘’Because it is an opportunity; if it is not given to you, you cannot have it. So, there was no teacher who could teach Mathematics very well,” he further added, noting that the case of Government Secondary School, Doma where over 4000 students of the school have not been given adequate attention in terms of proper teaching was worrisome.

Professor Ale later made a presentation of various Mathematics teaching materials including textbooks to the state government even as he also pledged to organize a training session for the Mathematics teachers in each of the senatorial districts in the state to enable the teachers to be in tune with the current developments in the subject.

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BY JOHN BULUS 

Source:Vanguard