I read a post by UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report which states that according to the #2024GenderReport, 1 in 5 people feel anxious about maths, with girls experiencing higher anxiety than boys.

So, on the International Day of Mathematics, I want to talk about my maths anxiety.

I scored all 1s including Mathematics when I sat for the Basic Education Certificate Exams. My math teacher did a great job.

When it was time to choose our courses for Senior High School, I chose to read General Arts. My parents have always supported our decisions so this was purely my personal decision devoid of any external influence and based solely on my research at the time and my interest and love for subjects that required extensive reading like General Arts. My excitement was short-lived when I got admitted to Holy Child School (HCS) and was placed in a General Arts class with Elective Mathematics, Economics, Geography, and French as my elective subjects.

My first encounter and introduction to E-Math was terrible and I never looked forward with gladness with any E-Math lesson. The interesting thing is that at HCS, we had various teachers of one subject who were assigned to different classes. But it seemed the General Arts class was the most unfortunate and was assigned a teacher who rather fanned into flames the anxiety for mathematics instead of nurturing a love for the subject.

I remember asking this teacher a question and he responded “Go and ask Archimedes”.

Oh, I disliked E-Math and my parents had to enroll me for extra classes with another teacher months ahead of my preparation to sit for the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

When my WASSCE results were released, I recorded my lowest WASSCE grade in E-Math.

Thankfully and ironically, today, I’m married to a Mathematics genius who was nicknamed ‘Prof’ in High School because of his love for the subject, and went ahead to read BSc Mathematics with Economics at the University of Cape Coast

The truth is a good foundation in Mathematics is key to success in emerging 21st-century careers. However, teachers have a key role to play in achieving this.

How prepared and equipped are our teachers to ensure that their students succeed in the subjects they teach?

Visit http://www.sugn.org to see how Spring-UP Global Network is nurturing the reading, writing, and STEM skills of children through our iRead iLead Campaign.