By Monday Obehi Akhimien

The epistemology of mathematics has neglected the key players in the foundation of learners- the primary school teachers. Over the years primary school teachers have never had the opportunity to make inputs into the development of the subject, especially in this part of the world.

The reason for this could be because most primary school teachers are not mathematics literates. Or, better still, the backwardness in the educational system in this part of the world.

Whatever the reason is, it has led to poor foundational development on the part of pupils, and the effects of this menace become pronounced when they move into secondary school.

Once the foundation is bad the student may continue to face problems throughout secondary school, struggling to keep up with peers. And this is not always positive-yielding in the long-run.

Schools need to start taking up more responsibilities in trying to help their pupils build a sound foundation in mathematics right from their first year in primary school.

And the single most effective way to do this is to ensure that their primary school teachers who are responsible for teaching mathematics have sound content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Since most primary school teachers are not mathematics literates, there is no doubt that they lack the required content knowledge, hence the difficulty in impat1ing such knowledge in pupils.

If you operate a primary and secondary school and have observed that your students’ performances at junior secondary are poor, then you have one choice- to organize in-house training for your primary school teachers from time to time. This will help make up for the lapses you have observed over the years.