In a bid to promote quality education in The Gambia, Youth Care Foundation (YCF), last week held a workshop for mathematics teachers across the Greater Banjul Area , at its office in Banjul.

The workshop was centred on the constraints of teachers and some of the factors that contribute to low performance of students in the area of mathematics. It was also designed to make  call to all stakeholders to increase their inputs in order to improve standards in mathematics.

In his opening remarks, Babou Joof, representative of the Directorate of Science and Technical Education, defined mathematics as a relevant subject. He observed that mathematics education constitutes an essential academic discipline, which helps  develop people's intellect and knowledge production in general. He added that mathematics aims at formulating new conjectures, thereby establishing the truth. The development of this subject, he explained, is in line with the agenda of the department of state for Basic and Secondary Education.

For his part, Mr Oladete Oyelakin, lecturer at UTG, spoke on the topic, "Impact of mathematics in youth development." He noted that mathematics equip powerful set of tools to understand and change the world, adding that such tools cannot move forward without logical reasoning and problem solving skills and ability among others. "At human level, the ability to think in abstract terms is not a common trait, this trait is developed by mathematics,'' he pointed.