The National Mathematical Centre has decried the lack of interest of Nigerian students in the study of Mathematics at the university level.
Chief Executive Officer, NMC, Prof. Promise Mebine, in a statement, made this known at the closing ceremony of a two-week Foundation Postgraduate Course On Current Trends in Mathematics Education organised by the Centre in Abuja.
He stated that mathematics had become a dumping ground where students who failed to secure admission into other courses were moving, adding that this trend over the years had drastically affected the output of mathematics teachers in the country.
Mebine noted that no country could get meaningful development without determined effort in the study of mathematics, which according to the NMC boss is the bedrock of every human endeavor.
He, therefore, charged participants of the training to develop applications that could be used in solving real-life situations in security, health, etc with the equations available for the overall development of the nation.
Speaking earlier, the Coordinator of the Mathematical Sciences Education Program, Prof. Steve Oluwaniyi, thanked the Director and Chief Executive for the opportunity to host the programme which according to him was long overdue.
Oluwaniyi noted that the participants who were drawn from the various Universities, Colleges of Education, Polytechnic and Secondary Schools, and Schools of Health Technology across the nation x-rayed the current trends in mathematics education in Nigeria. He added that the lack of mathematics teachers was a growing concern to participants.
Oluwaniyi called on education planners to urgently address the issues of lack of mathematics teachers by empowering the Centre with more funds to enable her organise more of such training.
