A Professor of Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam, Prof. Diletta Martinelli says to successfully pursue Mathematics, it is very significant for a person to have a good role model.
To her, the academic system in the mathematical field is competitive, especially with limited opportunities for scholarship.
“Unfortunately, the academic system is getting more and more competitive in the sense that there are always more talented candidates compared to the opportunities available and this is true, especially for opportunities connected to scholarship.” She said.
She, therefore, said though a passion for the subject helps keep an individual focused, the right networks in the face of challenges could also help the student pursue the course successfully.
“Usually the path is a challenging one because you always have to somehow gain the next step and face strong selection and competition. And this requires having access to the right network that gives you the right information to know how to be best trained for the next step because always every step is interconnected.” She continued.
She was speaking in an interview on the ATLANTIC WAVE on the topic Gender and Mathematics
The professor of Mathematics shared her experience and growth in the field of mathematics and said “my mom is a physicist. She has a physics degree and all the time that I was going back home with good notes in maths, everybody was saying, oh, you’re just like your mum. So I had in my home just a role model for that. And then I have an older sister who is also very good at school and in mathematics as well. So for me, they were my first direct role models.
On his part, senior lecturer with the department of Mathematics at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. Stephen Edward Moore says good exposure of students to Mathematics at an early age enhances their interest in the subject.
According to him, the basic knowledge mathematics teachers offer to students, especially at the high school level goes a long way to impact the student positively as it triggers their interest in the pursuit of the subject.
As such, he stressed the need to create awareness as a country and encourage students to have a great interest in mathematics and pursue it to a higher level.
Dr. Moore however expressed his discontent with the low number of females in the mathematics field in the country.
“There is an issue from the gender perspective that we don’t really have a lot of female Ph.D. students in Ghana. There are only five women in Ghana who have Ph.D. in mathematics; this is on a very low ground” he emphasized.
In this regard, he said there should be awareness creation to encourage more participation from young girls in their senior high schools to help them know the pathway into higher studies in Mathematics.
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Source: Abigail Baidoo/ATLFMNEWS
