Let career pathway determine level of math's teaching in JSS

At the onset of biblical history when God told Abraham to enumerate the stars of heaven, the aged patriarch (as the popular Christian children cartoon series Superbook portrays him) must have seized the abacus, the best computing tech of the time, to help him number his divinely promised descendants accurately.

Today, over 4,000 years later, that momentous mathematical ‘equation’ is still unsolved, despite the deployment of sophisticated space telescopes and supercomputers. Observers at the Hubble Space Telescope have so far mapped 2 trillion galaxies, each with an average of about 100 billion stars.

My point is that math is not a recent invention as many seem to believe. It is as old as mankind. No wonder two millennia before Christ, Abraham was already dabbling in astronomy, arithmetic, statistics, number theory, geometry, topology and a host of other abstract mathematical concepts as well, albeit unknowingly.

Many of his ‘descendants’ are doing the same thing today, that is, applying mathematics quite centrally in their unique vocations without necessarily proclaiming special adherence to it as a special scholarly discipline.

These ordinary folk include mothers, chess players, doctors, cooks, editors, bakers, tailors, coaches and trainers, construction workers, accountants, interior designers, ad infinitum. In a nutshell, anyone who has to make a budget, take measurements, mix ratios, or do any kind of enumeration can lay claim to being a mathematician.

Even Kenyan politicians, a cadre not particularly associated with goodwill, but which occupies a venerated space which locally eclipses all other respected careers such as medicine, law and architecture in terms of largesse and influence, might qualify as mathematicians of sorts. After all, data on the number of votes, and the volume of their own pockets is ever at their fingertips!

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Similarly, few musicians, even as they sway and clap with abandon, appreciate the affinity of music with mathematics, or realise that the sweet notes wafting from their electronic keyboards would not have been possible without the groundbreaking work of 19th century French mathematician Joseph Fourier, which opened new research avenues on the modelling of musical timbre. In particular, since the 1960s when computer-generated sounds first appeared, Fourier analysis has been critical to modelling of sound and solving problems of modulation and consistency.

The ubiquity of mathematics is therefore beyond question, and it is clear that virtually no task can be accomplished without invoking some form of numerical reckoning.

Furthermore, formal mathematical training is a great prescription for young minds. It furnishes them with tools that enhance among other competencies, critical thinking, logic and rationalisation, spatial and abstract thinking, problem solving, communication skills and creativity.

As a PhD in applied mathematics earning a salary by purveying my skills in one local public university, I have always found it quite tough instructing my countrymen in numerical subjects. Heavens know how hard I have tried to disabuse my students of their arithmophobia, sometimes sacrificing evenings and weekends to conduct free tuition. Unfortunately, many seem to have immutable ‘factory settings’ that equate mathematics with an impenetrable equatorial forest. There have been exceptions, of course.

Once in my frustration, I thought that most of my students by default subscribed to the fatalistic absurdity that sciences must be failed. But in retrospect, I’d now say that equally, irrelevant education can breed untold misery.

Without contradicting Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Julius Ogamba’s final verdict that mathematics will not become optional for non-STEM learners under the Competency Based Education (CBE) curriculum, I submit my well-considered view that unless one is preparing for a career in academics and research, or seeking tools for understanding engineering, technology or other core sciences, it is quite unnecessary to subject him or her to the requirement of acquiring mathematics competency way beyond their particular latitude of usefulness. If it was in this spirit that the Education CS was speaking, I am in full agreement with him.

Perhaps this understanding is what made many local universities to drop Math 100 (General Mathematics), a dreaded mandatory unit offered to all students, and which reportedly made otherwise upstanding practitioners of the arts utter swear words and squeal pitifully under unbearable duress.

As a career mathematician, my position might seem completely counter-intuitive. But most of my students as, a one-time high school teacher, went on to make great historians, lawyers, musicians and other cadres that do not require advanced mathematics to thrive.

When you think of it, most of us never got to apply in real life that archaic and compulsory lesson called ‘Maize Growing in Ancient Mesopotamia’. Similarly, these cognitively gifted Kenyans needed just enough math to ply their humanities careers. By all means, they should have been given a chance to specialise much earlier in their academic lives.

That said, the rest of us who must delve into the harder kernel of mathematics by virtue of our vocations should make efforts to align our skills with emerging technologies and contemporary global standards of research and not be merely deceived by the so-called ‘giftedness trap’. Math is not just math.