By Annet Nakanwagi,
NATIONAL
Prof.Paul Edward T.Mugambi,the Executive Director of Uganda Vice Chancellors’ Forum,has asked University students and lecturers to help change the mindset of Ugandans towards Mathematics.
While speaking as the guest of honour at an international conference on Computational Dynamics and Mathematical Modeling on Monday 6th February 2023 at KIU, the veteran Mathematician said Mathematics can and should be used in economic development processes.
The two-day conference held at KIU’s Iddi Basajjabalaba Memorial Library begun at 10am on Monday 6th February 2023 and will continue through Tuesday 7th February 2023.The topic of this conference is International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Mathematical Modeling with a theme ‘Mathematical Modelling and Computations’.
Prof.Paul Edward T. Mugambi noted that Uganda as a country has over the years struggled with the challenge of having many students fail Mathematics at different levels something that contributed to his founding of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences in order to enhance the performance of students in sciences and Mathematics.
“We used to have so many failures in Mathematics, students getting zeros and you would wonder why some one can get a zero in Mathematics and score a 70 in history. We saw that this was improper and decided to find out,” he said.
“We discovered that the problem was not with the students but the teachers. The teachers were not well trained,” he noted.
He added that, “Mathematics is there to support development sciences and the process of development sciences is illustrated by the concept of math and mathematical problems,’’
He also highlighted on the need to improve the performance of Ugandan students in mathematics. He said that whereas boys have improved over the years, women and girls are yet to shine despite a great improvement in recent years.
“The history of Mathematics is full of terrible stories of what women have suffered in trying to learn Mathematics but in Uganda the challenge used to affect both the boys and girls and we discovered that the problem was the teachers. The teachers were not well trained, something that we are addressing gradually, “ he noted.
KIU vice chancellor, Prof.Mouhammad Mpezamihigo whose welcoming remarks were read by Prof.Janice D.Busingye, the Deputy vice chancellor in charge of finance and administration at KIU also acknowledged the importance of Mathematics in daily life and its contribution towards economic development processes.
“Mathematics plays a great role in our daily lives, I anticipate a period in which Maths will be used to stimulate various economic development processes,” he added.
The key note speaker of the conference, Prof. O. D Makinde urged students and staff to embrace further training and research in order to advance their knowledge of computing and Mathematics especially in engineering and biological systems.
“All computing power and software packages available today are just tools and tools have meaning only in the hands of masters,” he added.
The conference organised by the School of Mathematics and Computing is the first of it’s kind at Kampala International University and has attracted Mathematics gurus from various parts of Africa, Uganda as well as KIU students and staff.
