Making maths a fun thing

The education authorities of Western Samoa, in common with hose of other Pacific Islands coun ties, are engaged upon an extensive ;xamination of the curricula offered o their pupils.

Quite obviously there is concern hat, in many instances, the present syllabuses of instruction concentrate ipon academic subject matter which las little or no relevance for the arge number of students who will emain on the land or who will make ip the greater part of the workforce.

The past emphasis upon academic itudies had a principal objective of iroducing the educated elite which yould receive tertiary education and orm the higher echelons of the pub ic service. This objective tended to gnore the interests of those who vere screened out of the academic rducational process.

In Western Samoa, lan Lowe of he UNDP Curriculum Development Unit, working with the Western >amoan secondary schools mathe natics curriculum committee has ?een engaged upon the task of de signing a mathematics programme

relevant to those pupils who will not enter Samoa College.

The Schools Publications Division of the Western Samoa Department of Education has now published pupils’ textbooks together with teachers’ manuals to cover the Form 111 to Form V area. Mr Lowe spent some time in village schools and had extensive consultations with Samoan teachers before assembling the syllabus. The results are com mendable as the programme is tailor-made to Western Samoan con ditions.

Learning mathematics should be a “fun thing” as there is a great variety of material to study and a market absence of tedious and repetitious tasks. The students, as an example, are introduced to the pro ject of starting a village store by surveying the potential customers, transport facilities and the costs of stocking a store. They are also shown how to draw the floor plans for a faleola (counter-in-front store) or a small “super-market” store.

Book-keeping is taught on a pre mise of life in the village, with some notes of caution. The pupils are

warned for instance that “there may be some trusted friends and maybe your own family to whom you can give credit”.

Fa’a Samoa is emphasised wher ever possible. In the teaching of the concept of symmetry, there is an examination of the symmetry used in the traditional Samoan tattoo motifs, and the practical applications of studying symmetry are used in designing patterns for the laying of floor tiles.

The programme also extends be yond the school buildings and play ground as the children carry out practical land surveys. They are also shown how to play interesting mathe matical games at home with their families, using everyday objects such as playing cards, matches and bottle tops.

It is to be hoped the Western Samoan Department of Education will press on with similar revisions of the curriculum and that its example with the mathematics pro gramme will become typical of similar programmes throughout the Pacific Islands countries.