The greatest problem with maths are bad teachers – Prof. Garba

How did you arrive at being a mathematician?Everything has a foundation. You start getting the background of what you will become from the beginning. I didn’t have the opportunity of starting school from nursery classes, so the laying of the foundation of my becoming a mathematician was done in the primary classes. I started from […]

How did you arrive at being a mathematician?
Everything has a foundation. You start getting the background of what you will become from the beginning. I didn’t have the opportunity of starting school from nursery classes, so the laying of the foundation of my becoming a mathematician was done in the primary classes. I started from the primary school level. The first thing that gingers your love for mathematics is the teacher. A good teacher is likely to motivate you. We were lucky in my time. We had good teachers from primary to secondary level. Most of us, especially at the primary school level, were good in mathematics because of the good teachers that were impacting the principles of mathematics in us. Good teachers are the beginning of your getting to love mathematics or any subject at that. We were taught well and we learnt fast. So mathematics could not be something to dread. What is required is foundation. It’s easy when you have a good foundation and we had good foundation.
What about students who started well but do poorly later?
Distraction can set in. The foundation will remain where it is if you don’t build on it. With mathematics, you need focus if you are to develop your capacity and move it from the foundation level. Your teachers at the succeeding levels could continue to be good and you could drop by the wayside if you allow distractions. Peer groups can constitute a harmful distraction. If you have peers, friends who share your interest and hard work, you will continue to soar. Your light will dim if you have friends who tend to drag you backwards. So, bad teachers and unserious peer groups are enemies of brilliance in mathematics. The third enemy of mathematics is the society itself. When the society gives you the impression that mathematics is a subject for special beings, you could begin to think so. Some people would shout and begin to view you as if you are more than human when it is said that you are a professor of mathematics. As if you are in a world very different from the ordinary. Such attitude does not allow the right atmosphere for conquest in mathematics.
You have mentioned three ‘enemies of mathematics’. Which of them do you regard as the worst?
Right now, the worst problem with mathematics are bad mathematics teachers. We need to produce good teachers. It is sad that it’s the rejected mathematicians that opt for teaching. Others go for medicine, accountancy and such fields. People don’t want to teach. Motivation from government is lacking. Teaching is not made attractive by governments that employ them, so Nigerians don’t want to be teachers. It is people who can’t find admission for other courses that choose to read Mathematics Education. It is sad because teachers should come from among the best brains. Government can begin to encourage the production of good mathematics teachers by giving scholarship to mathematics students who are inclined to train as teachers.
What would you recall of your primary and secondary school years?
I got into secondary school, form 1, at the age of 12. I was already very big. I had no difficulty because I was very good in arithmetic in my primary school. Those days, you were not allowed to start primary school until you had grown quite big. I was good in mathematics throughout my secondary school. We had good teachers right through to form five. I decided (solely) for mathematics after my first degree. I found that when I taught anyone mathematics, they understood. When I came out of NYSC, I was given graduate assistant (as lecturer in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) immediately while others were still looking for job.
How would you persuade students who have fear of mathematics, that it is not as difficult as they fear?
I have had students who started by complaining, students who said they didn’t like mathematics. I found that they complained because they were not doing well in the subject. I found that after teaching them for a while and they started doing well, they developed love for the subject. There is that. And from my own experience, very probably because I was doing well from primary school and I liked the subject from those foundation years and continued to do well in it, I can say with confidence that anyone who has interest and has good teachers or seeks teaching from good mathematics teachers won’t have problem with mathematics.
What should be the approach to mastering mathematics?
Mathematics calls for patience, a lot of patience. You can’t lie down and read mathematics the way you read history. You have to practice and practice mathematics. You can attempt one question five times before you get the answer and discover how to tackle the question. That’s the nature of the subject. It requires a lot of patience. Once you give it time and practice to each practice question, it becomes a very interesting subject because each question you tackle gives you joy.
Where does the mathematics teacher come in: or is it that teachers do not say what you are saying to their students?
Some mathematics teachers are really not teachers. Many of these people who teach mathematics in secondary schools graduated in geography or some other subjects. They either don’t like mathematics or are not good enough in it to teach it. Some of them may be very good in mathematics but teaching it is another thing entirely. They have to know how to deliver it if they are to be useful to their students. If you know mathematic but can’t effectively teach it, you will only be talking to yourself when you are in class. That is why you need education and the elements of methodology of teaching the subject.
A major problem I have seen is that most of those who teach mathematics are people who themselves don’t like mathematics. They didn’t choose it in the first place because they loved it. Circumstances forced them on it, as I said earlier. And because they don’t like mathematics, they don’t have the enthusiasm to encourage the students on mathematics. They could even succeed in transferring to the students the hatred they have for mathematics. That’s one of the ways in which you could easily get it wrong as a student.
How do you tackle that and other issues with teaching the subject?
Much that needs to be done lies with the government. Teachers were highly respected by the society. They were small gods. They were well paid and they lived respectable lives. Some of the best of people were attracted into teaching because of that, unlike these days when it is mostly people who have no alternatives that go into teaching.
What does it mean to be a professor?
It is the peak of your career, the height beyond which you can’t climb. I get no pay rise unless there is a general review of salary. Its high point is the prospect of retiring at your full salary. Once you have done a certain number of years of active service as a professor, you are entitled to retire at your full salary as your monthly pension.  
To go from your peak to the beginning now, what was education like by the time you started your primary school?
I went to primary school at a time when teachers enjoyed very high regards, when being asked by your teacher to carry out some chores in his house made you happy, when you were proud to be associated with a teacher. In turn, they gave their maximum service and taught you well.
 Did it influence your becoming a teacher too?      
It must have had an effect. It certainly helped my love for mathematics. I was very well taught, not only mathematics but other subjects as well, but mathematics is a major subject and if you are good in it, there is a tendency to get more deeply involved in it.
Still on teaching, could it not have been partly because few professions were practiced then, as against now when many other professions have been developed and attention has significantly shifted from teaching?
Yes, teaching was about the most visible profession, especially in the rural areas, but it was mainly because the missionaries who established and controlled most schools treated teachers well and rewarded them greatly. The missionaries had very high regards for their teachers. It’s not like the way government see teachers today as if they are not important.
When government talks about teachers, it’s in a mocking manner. The missionaries encouraged teachers because they knew how central education is in the modern world. They were genuinely committed to human development through good education.