[Air-L] SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR ONLINE MATHEMATICS PROJECT

[kofi ware]

Dear Colleagues,

I respectfully write to ask colleague researchers in this platform to
suggest potential sources of funding to implement my online mathematics
project in Ghana.

An overview of the project

Statistics of results from the West African Examination Council (WAEC)
continues to show an abysmal performance of students in mathematics right
from the basic school level to the secondary school level.

For example, results released by the West African Examination Council
(WAEC) indicate that only 25.29% of candidates who took the May/June 2015
West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) obtained A1-C6
in mathematics while 29.75% had D7-E8 and 37.17% had F9.

In 2016, only 77, 108 (32.83%) of students who sat for the WASSCE passed in
core mathematics obtaining between A1-C6; 65, 007 (27.68%) obtained D7-E8
whilst 89,477 (38.10%) had F9.

In 2017, statistics from WAEC indicated that 122,450 (42.73%) had A1-C6
while 106,024 (37%) had D7-E8 and a total of 58, 351 (20.27%) had F9.

Even though there seems to have been a considerable improvement in 2017 as
compared to the previous two years, the general trend and overall
performance in mathematics paints a gloomy picture and therefore, calls for
concerted efforts in overcoming this hurdle. This is necessitated by the
fact that mathematics is often included among the core subjects and as such
is a pre-requisite for admission from the basic level to the secondary
school level and subsequently from secondary schools to tertiary
institutions.

In view of this, it is important for teachers to move away from the old
teaching methodologies and to be innovative and adopt more pragmatic
measures to help student pass mathematics. This involves implementing
strategies that will complement the normal class room work and grant an
opportunity for students who are slow learners to be able to catch up with
their colleagues.

I would be grateful to receive your feedback


*Dr Stephen  Bekoe*
BA, Ghana MSc, Singapore PhD, England

*Research Scientist*
Geo-spatial and Information Science Division
Institute for Scientific and Technological Information
*Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana*