I was not going to involve myself in the conversation about Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum and the plan to drop mathematics as a compulsory subject until Phoebe sent me a meme of mathematician martyrs declaring, “Not under my watch.” Her message, which included the meme, read, “Na nyinyi mmenyamaza,” meaning I was silent about the whole issue. I know she would have said, “Evil triumphs when good people keep quiet.”
I have not followed the conversation closely, but I am sure they are not serious about it. There are many reasons why some people hate mathematics. For some, it is simply because of mathematics teachers. And sure enough, there is no reason a teacher should extend a class into lunchtime, especially when it is a double lesson. Others dislike math because they never saw its real-life applications. In these cases, the problem may have been teachers who skipped the most important part of introducing any learning concept—the application. Those who claim they never understood the application of Pythagoras’ theorem are the same people who keep putting up signboards reading “Do not trespass.” Naturally, we all want to use a² + b² = c² to reach our destination using the shortest route. If we all understood that, we wouldn’t hate mathematics.
For others, their dislike of math may stem from their performance in school. I am a physics and mathematics teacher. I had never failed mathematics as badly as I did in my second year. I remember one time when my friend saw the examination paper as the lecturer returned our CAT papers. One of our classmates had scored 7/30. My friend scoffed, “I can’t score 7, even if it’s out of 10.” What we didn’t know was that the lecturer had arranged the papers in descending order of performance (see, another application of mathematics). It took a while before he got to our papers, and at that moment, we immediately agreed that 3/30 is not such a bad percentage—after all, even God only requires a tenth of our income!
The formula in the photo above is a mathematical expression that defines probability. If there are n exhaustive, mutually exclusive, and equally likely cases, and m of them are favorable to an event A, then the probability of A occurring is defined as the ratio m/n. This simple expression can solve world problems in families, workplaces, and leadership. For example, if you have been married for 15 years, it is likely you have spent 15 Valentine’s Days together. If your spouse has never bought you flowers on Valentine’s Day, you can use this formula to determine the probability of them buying you flowers next year. In the workplace, you can use the same formula to determine whether your supervisor will affirm you or not. The list is endless, but the point is that you can use these formulas to manage your expectations.
I hope by demonstrating the application of three mathematics concepts, I have convinced the Ministry of Education to retain mathematics as a compulsory subject.