Techiman Senior High School wages war on mathematics

Authorities at the Techiman Senior High School have launched a battle against poor performance of their students in Mathematics.

Headmaster of the school Mr. Appau Karikari tells rawgist.com, the performance of the students in mathematics has not been encouraging. To this end the school’s management has decided to take a second look at the methods employed by the teachers in the teaching of the subject.

When rawgist.com visited the school, about 21 teachers from the mathematics department were gathered in a 2-day workshop deliberating on more interesting ways to impact mathematical knowledge to the students.

rawgist.com investigations reveal that just about 50% of the candidates who wrote the WASSCE exam from the school passed mathematics; a situation school authorities find unamusing.

The Headmaster of the School who has been known to be an “action man” tells rawgist.com’s Bernard Buachi he couldn’t sit down unconcerned as the school’s mathematical prowess goes down the drain.

Head of Mathematics department of the school, Akua Yeboah believes the workshop will make great impact as the workshop has made the teachers more interested in the subject and has made them aware of some of the challenges the students face in the learning of the subject.

She however tells rawgist.com the main problem might not be from the teachers as many of the students spend more time and resources on getting clues to exam questions; a phenomenon known locally as “apor”. She believes unless the students shift focus and concentrate on studying the subject things will not change much.

Kwarteng Francis, another mathematics teacher who attended a 14 day workshop organised by the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education for teachers in 4 regions of the northern sector says the workshop was to encourage the use of activity based method in the teaching of mathematics and also help students understand the concept of mathematics.

Techiman Senior High School has remained the leading school in the Techiman municipality in terms of WASSCE performance.

The Headmaster of the school hints he will do all that is possible to ensure the standards set by the school remains a trail for others to follow.