Abena Serwaa Opoku-Fosu presenting the books to the Minister of Education
The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has donated some 10,000 Core Mathematics Revised Guide to the Ministry of Education to support government’s flagship programme – Free Senior High School (SHS).
The textbook has over 74 table contents and they include linear equation, change of subject, construction, inequalities, fractions, modular arithmetic, plane geometry, among others. The book aims at helping address the worrying trend of failures in Mathematics at the SHS level in the country.
Records show that performance in Core Mathematics at the SHSs for the past six years has been poor.
In 2015, 25.29 per cent of candidates who sat for WASSCE Core Mathematics obtained A1 to C6, whilst 74.7 per cent obtained D7 to F9, meaning about 75 per cent of the candidates could not gain admission to tertiary institutions.
This year, the statistics showed a drop in performance from 42.73 per cent (who obtained between A1 to C6 in 2017) to 38.33 per cent.
It is against this discouraging trend that a Team of Researchers from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) headed by Dr. Johnathan Annan undertook a research at some selected SHSs to probe the causes of the poor performance in Core Mathematics examinations.
It was then established that among the numerous challenges, the topmost one was the lack of a comprehensive revision guide for the students. Subsequently, the concise and straight to the point book titled ‘Core Mathematics Revision Guide’ for SHSs was written by a team of researchers and Source One Limited.
However, after the book was authored, publishing was a challenge as a result of lack of funds. Hence the following institutions were lobbied to help publish the books : GPHA, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), Heritage Bank, National Investment Bank (NIB), Deloitte and National Communication Authority (NCA). Besides, the mentioned institutions distributed the books to all SHS students in the country.
Presenting the books published by Elite Publishing Company with cover designs of the country’s ports, Mrs. Abena Serwaa Opoku-Fosu, GPHA Marketing Manager, explained that the kind gesture was aimed at supporting government in areas of Mathematics teaching in SHSs.
The Marketing Manager believes that the revised guide which comes in handy will help students excel in Mathematics.
On his part, the Minister for Education, Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, was full of praise for the various institutions that helped in the publication and donation of the books.
He explained that Mathematics forms the nitty-gritty of STEM initiative and that all efforts must be made to ensure that teaching and learning of Mathematics is attractive to students.
He believes that every aspect of life revolves around Mathematics hence the gesture by these institutions are a welcoming indication of how far the country wants to go with Mathematics.
He, therefore, expressed gratitude to the institutions for their donation, indicating that the books would be delivered to schools across the country for use by students.
 From Vincent Kubi, Tema