A wee-long Math Camp, aimed at making the subject as simple as possible for students in Forms one and two of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, has been completed with the facilitators having been drawn from the public and private sectors.
“This year’s camp, a pilot undertaking for future years, is one component of the strategies of the Ministry of Education designed to improve the performance of students in numeracy,” Mrs Dawn Reid, Education Services Planner, told The Anguillian. “Having made some strides in the area of literacy, numeracy is now also an area of focus.”
Mrs Reid observed: “The idea behind the camp is to reinforce concepts that would have been taught, during the school year, in an effort to strengthen the students’ understanding.” She added: “Facilitators, who were drawn from certain fields, took a more practical approach while showing students that Maths can be fun. The intention was to try to develop a love for Math in the students. The sessions proved to be quite interactive.”
The Math Camp, which ended on Friday, August 22, was coordinated by Mr Vijay Sharma, Curriculum Officer, Mathematics, in the Department of Education.
“People say they hate mathematics but I always try to make it as simple as possible, and to make it fun for them so that they will learn,” Mr Sharma stated, acknowledging the assistance of the other facilitators. He explained that the camp covered such areas as fractions, percentages, measurements and conversion of units in which some students are usually weak.
Originally, the camp catered for seventy-five students, but only fifteen actually turned up. They were presented with certificates. It is hoped that in the next annual camp more students will avail themselves of taking advantage of this useful exercise to learn maths in a simple and modern way.
The facilitators for the Math Camp were Mr Sharma; Mrs Reid; Mrs Janice Makeag Richardson of the Technical, Vocational and Education Training (TVET) Council; Mr Calvin Ruan, a Mathematics Teacher at the Comprehensive School’ Ms Allison Hughes, a retired educator; Mrs Lori Franklin, Chief Statistician; Ms Tameka Fleming of the Internal Audit Department; Mr Damien Lloyd of the Anguilla Electricity Company; and Mr Rawle Hazell and Mr Nigel Connor of the Department of Infrastructure.
