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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
A lecturer in the Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Ibadan, Dr. Ishola Salami, has invented a hip-hop song that will simplify the studying of Mathematics for students with a view to making mass failure in the subject a thing of the past.
In a chat on the invention with journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Sunday, he said the hip-hop song is tagged: MATMUSIC, which comprises tracks of songs with Mathematics ideas, principles and procedures as the messages.
Salami, who specialises in early childhood education, explained that the hip-hop song is aimed at enhancing the knowledge of pupils in primary schools.
He noted that mass failure in Mathematics and lack of interest in the subject by many students could be attributed to poor childhood learning friendly tools to enable students grasp the right formula to use in solving mathematical questions.
Salami stated that a person that could solve simple Mathematics problems, could quickly reflect on how to solve societal problems, adding that the Nigerian government should embrace more child-friendly strategies that would make the subjects simple for students to learn.
He noted that the result of the 2019 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), revealed that out of the 11, 892 candidates who sat for the examinations, only 3, 102 obtained five credits which include English and Mathematics.
The results of WAEC published by the National Bureau of Statistics covering 2016 and 2018 indicated that candidates with five credit and above with both Mathematics and English in the South West zone was less than 40 per cent.
His words: “Learning Mathematics has always been a serious challenge for many learners, starting from primary school level across the whole world. One of the reasons for this is the nature of the subject, which is rule-governed and abstract. To do well in Mathematics, one has to remember a lot of rules and procedures.
“Past efforts to make the subject learning-friendly, focused largely on preparation of effective teachers and methods of teaching it. Songs have also been used as instructional strategies to teach Mathematics. But there is dearth of information on effort targeting child-friendly music to teach Mathematics.
“It was discovered that one of the music types that children love to listen to, is hip hop music. This is because of the beats, rhythm and the danceable melody it has. It was also discovered that when children love given music, they tend to remember all the lyrics.
“So, if Mathematics principles, formulae, ideas can be put into a child-friendly music like hip hop, this should enhance the learning of the subject. It is against this background that hip hop music on primary Mathematics was written and composed.
“We are still hoping government in South West will see this invention and embrace it for adoption in primary school level. The song incorporates the curriculum at the primary level.”
