Priscilla Akpanettot
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| Prof. Enobong Joshua |
Prof. Enobong Joshua is a renowned Professor of Applied Mathematics. He has taught Mathematics in several institutions across and beyond Africa, and has just retired from the Department of Mathematics, University of Uyo. He is a lover and canvasser for quality education, with deep interest in capacity-building for teachers, to enable them give better outputs to students. He was a member of the Think-Tank Committee set-up by Governor Udom Emmanuel to develop a roadmap for the education sector in Akwa Ibom State. He has also been Chief Operating Officer and Chairman, Award Screening Committee for the InoyoToro Foundation for over a decade and is now a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Foundation.
In this interview with THE INK NEWSPAPER, Prof. Joshua gives an exposition to a better understanding of Mathematics; the problem of education in Nigeria and practical solutions to curb them.
Ques: Tell us a little about yourself before we go forward
Resp: I am Enobong Joshua, a Professor of Mathematics. I have studied Mathematics all my days. I did math, what we call additional math in my time which later became Further Math in my Secondary School. I had a very good grade, grade 1 in my School Cert. We had grade 1, 2, 3 and I had grade 1 which was the highest. I did Mathematics and Physics and still fell in love with this Mathematics. At the University, I did Mathematics and graduated in 1980 from the University of Nigeria and then, came to start work. I have a Master's degree in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics. I taught briefly in the Secondary School, very briefly; not up to a term and then joined to teach at the College of Education, Uyo before it metamorphosed into the University of Cross River State and that one also metamorphosed into the University of Uyo. So I have been teaching like that. I retired in April this year as a Professor of Mathematics.
Ques: Why did you choose education/teaching instead of other disciplines?
Resp: Somebody must choose something and I chose to be a teacher because I admire teachers and I felt I could be a teacher of Mathematics, not any other subject. When I did my National Youth Service, I taught Mathematics and Physics in Lagos many years ago. So, I've always loved the profession. I would have been an Engineer, perhaps, if i wanted to, but i never liked medicine because i didn't like Biology even though my research centers around biological sciences now, but those days, those big words "plasmodium", "paramecium" scared us, just like the dates scared us from history. I liked history too but how to remember the dates scared us from there. So, I’ve long preferred Mathematics.
Ques: You talk about Mathematics with so much passion and energy that it doesn't sound like one subject a lot of persons out as very difficult and scary. Why do students have this phobia for Mathematics?
Resp: One is the mentality. You know, I read the Bible too, the Bible talks about the grasshopper mentality. You remember those folks who went and saw giants and reported that the land would easily consume the people? Their mentality was small. When a child goes to School and he has already had a phobia for Mathematics; his make-up is not to attempt it. Added to that, if you have a teacher who comes to do some root teaching; quotes this and that, the child gives up completely, he cannot make an attempt. But if you have a teacher who can expose it clearly to you, you will love the teacher and when you get in love with the teacher you also get in love with the subject he/she teaches, and that's it. So, students must open their minds, not minding the stories they hear, to be able to understand the subject. Mathematics is not that tough, in fact; it is one of the easiest, where you can get a 100%, where you can also get a zero. Yes!
Ques: Is there a better way of simplifying Mathematics to make learning it fun?
Resp: It's the problem of the teacher... If you sit down and devise how to teach a particular concept, you can generate interest for it, so if the teacher doesn’t have that commitment to teaching, he will just go talk about those things at the peripheral, and that’s all. And the students will not learn. There's no particular way of teaching the subject. The ways will depend on the methodologies used because methods are different, depending on which students are before you. When I was in Southern Africa, we had two books for Mathematics; one exercise book was stronger than the other. The stronger ones were for students who were much better than the others, the weaker ones were for students who were not as good, but then they caught up at some point together. So, it will depend on the method the teacher uses in handling Mathematics.
Ques: You've been in the system of education for a very long time. What in your opinion is the problem of this sector in Nigeria?
Resp: One key problem is the handlers of the education sector; the key players. Right from the top maybe, Minister to the Permanent Secretary; Commissioner, the teacher too, the Principals; that's the problem of education. The educational policies are fine, the education people once in a while, can begin to change some things but the basic things are still there. Those things change maybe to meet with present advancement, but the basic fundamental concepts are still there, so, the handlers are the problem. I was telling a story of a person in public Primary School teaching children and the one in the private Primary School also teaching children. The child from the public School comes out and cannot express himself, but the one from the private School expresses himself very well, what's the difference? Commitment! Meanwhile, the teacher who handles that primary class in the public School may be more qualified or better qualified than the one in the private School, what's the problem? Commitment! It's commitment. In those days, we never had private Schools; everybody went to a public School. I attended the primary School in the Village. I started at Jubilee in Uyo, moved to Ikot Akpan Abia Ubium, then to Ikot Ekpot, and then to Ikot Akpa Etok in Ibesikpo. So you see, I’ve been moving with teachers like that in public Schools and that did not stop me from being what I wanted to be. So the teacher is a key player. That is why I am passionate about the teacher. If the teacher is good enough, education will rise, if the government is also supportive enough, because government will say something and they don't do them; the implementers and the hierarchy of government are not interested in what goes on. I beg to say that, but you see, if the government has a policy and it's not well interpreted by the handlers, the teacher takes the brunt of it because the thing has not been handed over to him the way it should it be, and that's the problem. So education is fine, policies are good but the handlers, the key players, which have to do with the people at the helm of affair, are the problem. When the former Governor came for example, he said education would be his priority, and we followed him, and he went on to set up the education summit, even though we've had an education summit before. I was a member of the Planning Committee, I was also a resource person and we spoke all the English and they were fine. We had good results; the Governor was there which was unprecedented. We never had that kind of thing; having a Governor attend such event for the three consecutive days. Then the Governor said "well let's set-up a kind of a think-tank on education to produce a road map" because he was passionate about it, and we then produced a road map. I was a member of the "think-tank committee" which was headed by Prof. Hillary Inyang and we sat together, brainstormed over months, came up with a road map, where is it now? We don't know. So, I was talking about key players in the sector. When the key players are committed and interested, not everything is money. Sometimes, you do your work because of the interest you have. For example, I work in the Foundation, it's not for money, it’s to see how we can move the education sector forward. So, if the people at the helm of affairs are not gunning for money, but gunning for the good of the people, then you'll see the change, it goes like that.
This morning I was just reading the book of Joshua, and Joshua said “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord" and he asked the people: "will you?" the people now readily said "yes we will", because the leader has gone that direction. If the people at the top are going the direction of commitment to education, others coming after them are doing that also, it will get down to the teacher and will get down to the pupil who will now become serious and committed. We never had cult in our days in School, we never knew what that meant, even at our University level, but today people are distracted by those kinds of activities. So, students don't go to School; sometimes they go to school late and loiter around and later they go back home, they've finished studying, with no books. They don't have books, they go like that to School, but if things were done properly, you'll see students who will sit down and study.
Ques: Do parents have a role to play in all of these?
Resp: Seriously, yes! Parents are part of the stakeholders; the key players. If a parent would send his or her Ward to go hawking during school hours, it means they are not interested. Why is that child not in School? Parents have a role to play, some are not interested and of course when the child turns out to be a gangster, they will attack them first. So, parents must be able to encourage their children to be in School and monitor that they are actually in School. Why is it that in the public Schools we don't have those parents, but the private Schools are different. Not all parents are rich to enroll their Wards in private Schools. My daughter was in a private School many years ago when a bike rider brought his child. The Proprietor said he was going to increase fees. When we were quarreling over the increment, the bike rider was not bothered because he had the resources. I was a small teacher then. I didn't have so, we were quarreling even though eventually, we tried to pay but the bike rider did not bother, because he knew what it meant to be in that private School, but the same kind of bike rider today, will send his son to go hawking instead of being in School and would not even monitor whether he’s in School or not. He comes back from work and doesn't care if that son is revising his notes or reading at all. Parents! I was talking to the three senatorial district two years ago under the auspices of the State Secondary Education Board on the Role of the community in education. Parents, community have serious roles to play in education. Was just driving past the Flyover at Abak Road after the Federal Secretariat and the roof of that Primary School there were removed, who removed them? Why wouldn't the community rise up to say ‘no’ when they were removing the sheets one by one? because they were not removing all of them at the same time. It’s like nobody cares, that's part of it too. It's nonchalance of the community, parents, government and many people. That is why education is where it is today, and I think maybe, this news should go farther so that communities will sit up; we're not interested! If I have a son who is in the cult, do I draw his attention and say, "no you cannot be" why must he go and fight another or even kill another? Why must the society degenerate to that point? So every stakeholder, every person has a stake in education; it's just that we're not interested.
Ques: You were part of the team that designed the education road map for Akwa Ibom State, what were the key recommendations to salvage the situation?
Resp: There were many things, it's not something I can rehearse now but the road map was in phases, I don't know what phase this will be now because it started in 2020 and by now, we would have gotten to the second phase of the road map but we have not even attempted the first phase. One of the things is what government started to do; building fences, because we were to stem the tide of insecurity. But that was not the first thing; we had said the whole sector should be reorganized, employ more teachers, open more schools. One School cannot have 4,000 students, yes! some, 5,000 in the town, when others in the villages are about 200, 300. Now, in the town, in Uyo for example, we had data about population of school-going children and those in Schools and we put all of these on the template. Government, if this School is 5,000 or 4,000; break it up, we should have at most 1,500 students to be manned by one Principal, the rest, open up Schools, build more Schools, that was a key recommendation, and then where there are concentration of teachers, scatter them with their relevant subject areas to where their needs may be. I went to one School and there were about 29 or 30 Vice Principals, in one school in town, what are they doing there? So, we said okay, when you're building schools, let them have farms, raise funds; Schools should be equipped with laboratories. In fact, we designated a few schools that could be used as pilot, fully boarding, fully productive of what they eat through the school farms and other things, even metal. We located one School where they had machines which could produce things for the public to buy (not a technical School), we did all that, and then the next thing was, recruit teachers that can be sent to schools…so, those were some of the things in the road map. It was a wonderful document which if government would have looked at it, they would have done a good job. We said okay, set up an implementation committee made of mostly those who drafted this but you know, government is guided mostly by politics, so ordinary people may not come in, but if you're a politician, have the passion. If you have the passion, you’ll set the thing going correctly, but here we are, that road map, I don’t know the state of it currently.
Ques: Huge resources put into it and time of members of that team yet, the process has been slow. How do you feel about that?
Resp: Well, progress has been slow; actually, we're not happy about what is going on because I know what it took for Prof. Inyang to come down to join us. Prof. Hillary Inyang is an international scholar, in fact he's known all over the world. He is regarded as an ambassador. Wherever he goes, he's given presidential treatment. He came and sat here with us in Uyo and did that work but I don't know, maybe government is dusting it, it could be, it's possible, i can't know, because I'm not there so, I can't really talk about that. Government may be working on it at the background. We don't know but we need to see if there are areas they are about to implement, that's it, but for me I won’t know since I'm not in government.
Ques: Let's come to the Inoyo Toro Foundation which has stood out over the years as a reward system for teachers in public Schools. How do you feel being one of the success stories of the Foundation so far?
Resp: I don't know if I am. I had a Principal those days in the College who would say "we're doing our poorest best". He would tell us students, "we're doing our poorest best, please bear with us". I think I'm doing my poorest best and not necessarily a success story. I got interested in the Foundation through the late Prof. Ebong Mbipom. He was a Professor of Physics at the University of Calabar, he died some few years ago. When I went to Namibia, I introduced intervention programs for teachers of science; that was during technical aid program there in the 90's/91. When I went there, I saw how they were teaching; I said: “okay folks, can we organize workshops for these teachers?" That's where I started, so I organized workshops and the local and central government were very interested. We trained some teachers on how to teach science, not only Mathematics. When I returned, Prof. Mbipom contacted me and we started intervention workshops for teachers of science; that was his project. So, he went from one senatorial district to another, to teach teachers, gather them over weekends and was teaching them Science and English. Then, InoyoToro Foundation came on board. Prof was the Chairman of the screening committee, that was in 2007. So, he invited me to join the screening committee, that's how I got to know about the Foundation. We worked together with Prof for a number of years until God called him home. Then the Foundation said, "why don't you become Chairman of the screening committee?" That's how I got involved. Since then, we've been trying our best to see what we can do to impact the teachers. Focusing on the teachers as well as the students, we also provide mentorship for students in various schools.
Ques: Are teachers also trained besides the screening?
Resp: Yes, we train the winners every year. We have mentorship training for them. We train them on how to train others. When we train them, we say, “okay, now you've gotten the prize, maybe first prize, second prize, third prize or whatever. Go back home, get between four and seven teachers where you stay in your neighborhood, not necessarily your own school but the schools around, invite them and also teach them. You're a good teacher is it not? That's how you won the prize. If you're a good teacher, teach others to teach like you” because if we do that and the thing spreads, we'll have more teachers committed to the work and to improving education, so that's what we do.
Ques: So, what's really the vision around the InoyoToro Foundation?
Resp: Our vision is to eradicate poverty, because if you're not educated, you’ll still be lurking around, looking for what to eat. But if you are educated, you’ll have a better chance. Even if you're a carpenter and you have some education, you'll know how to approach people to patronize your job. You will even know the measurements and how things should be correctly measured as a carpenter. If you have education, even as a bricklayer, you’ll be doing the job much better. So, to eradicate poverty through education, that's the main vision, that's our goal. So, how if we teach the teacher very well and train them very well, then, we will have good quality education. Part of our road map was "Train Teachers", the State should get resources to train teachers adequately. Many things were involved in that road map; monitoring, training - not monitoring to go and get yam and cassava and all that, no. Monitoring to be sure that what they do is right.
Ques: So since 2007 that the Foundation came on board, how have you been able to measure your wins?
Resp: Well, one of the wins we have is one teacher, Mr. Ephraim Jacob Inyangudo who through us went to the USA and won the World Teachers Award. He became Full Bright Teacher through us. He was with us, and won the first prize or so, and then got the mentorship prize which he won twice or so, and at the end, when we saw an opening for FULLBRIGHT, we invited him and he went. That's one win we have for Physics. When he went there, the way he talked Physics to the children of America, that is, the School he went to? The children got so much endeared to him, that the teacher, the present teacher asked him how he does it. Actually, we know how to teach. Nigerians are very knowledgeable. That's why, when we go outside, we don't lack. When I was in Namibia, one man, John Suffolk from U.K came as resource person and he was baffled about the Nigerians who were there. He was saying "you folks are good". You know we are good in this, but we are also good in some terrible things, and of course, they look at those terrible things and write-off the others. That's the error. They don't see that beyond the terrible things, there are very good fellows who can do something. So, that's one of the wins. The other ones are the people here and there in Schools who teach. Through our training, a lot of work is happening which we may not know in the hinterlands, in the Schools across the state.
Ques: What informs the criteria for selection of these teachers at the time they are being screened?
Resp: First, the person should be a teacher for 3-5 years. You don't just jump into School and come back with no experience. You have to be a teacher for 3-5 years. Then you take an exam based on what you teach, not University exam. We won't ask you to solve differential equations in mathematics; we give you the things you teach and if you're good as a teacher, you should pass and if you don't pass then, that's an error. And if you pass very well, then we say “okay, that is written work, come and tell us how you teach these things and we sit in panels of two perhaps, and you tell us, we are marking you. When we are satisfied with you, we give you a score. The other one comes, we give a score and then we compare the scores and say okay sorry, we have 1, 2, 3 who have won in that subject, that's what we do. And we do this with all amount of integrity and that's what we have been known for since 2007, since the time of Prof. Mbipom till now, we don't toy with our scores, we don't award marks, you earn your score. So, if you come tomorrow to be screened as a teacher, you earn it; if you don't earn it, forget it. Sometimes we don't have first prize in a particular subject because nobody measures up. Yes! We can't say because you scored 50% and the others are scoring 40%, you're the first. You must score up to 70%. You can't have First Class in the University even if you are the best in the class and you are on 2.2, isn't it? It’s the same thing here. So, if you want to be First Class, you score 70%, or for the second prize, you score 60% and above. So sometimes, in some subjects, we don't have teachers who score up to 60% and so, we have only third place, sometimes we have only second and third. So, that's it!
Ques: We've been noticing huge reward given to teachers who emerge winners and even runners-up. This must be capital intensive, considering the span of time, what's the funding stream?
Resp: People volunteer; people who love education. There are many people in Akwa Ibom who are not seeing it that way. It's a sad story, because if people were seeing it the way we see it then they would follow, but people fund. People take up certain prizes, like the Mathematics prize is taken up by one family, the English prize by another family, Chemistry, and so on by some people like that who have seen the importance of doing such. Some tell big testimonies of their parents; by reason of that, they say, "we're going to fund this” and then, we also have Savannah Energy that came up and said, “we are going to sponsor the Grand Mentor prizes for the five science subjects, including English and they have been doing that over the years. And they are sponsoring some of our projects, some of our programs, in fact, presently; they are sponsoring most of our programs. If people have the vision of correcting and bettering education, then you see them come in. We also have school mentorship where some people will opt to sponsor the mentorship. A few students from school will sit and interact with a mentor. If that mentor has gone somewhere and been something, he now says, “this is why I got there” and tells the children, “if you work hard and you pay attention, you can get there too”, but again that's the thing we have floated in the media and people are not interested in picking up that, that one is even a smaller sponsorship. Take a student from a school, talk with them and point them to the future. Through that, one of the mentors has children who passed through that mentorship, got to the University, graduated and they are working in very key places now. That vision is something you should sell to the public maybe to you journalists too, to see if we can help education, all of it is to help education.
Ques: So the Foundation is actually named after Mr. Inoyo, what is his support to the Foundation?
Resp: His support is tremendous, you know, when I said people sponsor prizes; there are other things we do. We can sponsor English, Chemistry and so on, but how do you get about that prizing? How do you run the office? How do you do this and that? How do you set up the machinery to do all of that? The Foundation is Inoyo Toro Foundation. It has a board of trustees, so that Board sits together to see how the Foundation is run. Dr. Inoyo puts in a lot of resources into it but some others also do same.
Ques: Are there challenges you’ve encountered as Chairman of the Screening Committee?
Resp: Sometimes, the challenges could be sponsorship. Otherwise, we have volunteers who act as resource persons, like we are going to have one shortly, who comes to give exams and then sit to interview. Sometimes, some of them are not ready but then we cover up for them. We have a way of subsidizing or doing one thing or the other to take care of that, so we don't have much challenge. Another challenge is response of teachers, because even when we have this kind of call it, lofty program; teachers are skeptical, Principals are also, not necessarily skeptical but afraid of the test. You know that kind of thing. You've left school for a long time and then you're told to come and take a test. We campaigned for Principals to come pick the prize but they are afraid of the tests, teachers are also afraid of the test. So, this year, we have just about a hundred and something which shouldn't be, we should have up to 200 or more applying, but they are not interested. That's a challenge for us because the more, the merrier, isn't it? The more, the more competitive too. If you have 5 people competing; it's better than 3. If you have 10 Principals, we keep it at 10-15 Principals but we’ve never had up to 15. The last time was about 11 or so, this year, they are about 7. There was a year it was even lower than that, even though at that time, we were just choosing 1 but now we're choosing 3, so those are some of the challenges we have. People are not willing to even come compete and pick a prize.
Ques: Were there challenges pertaining to picking out the most qualified candidate after screening, such as not knowing who to pick or maybe a tie?
Resp: No, we don't have that because our criteria for picking are very clear, unless there is a tie. If there is a tie, we now know what to do, we go back to the records or give them another test if it comes to that but it usually does not get there.
Ques: So in 2021 surprisingly, the Foundation extended its coverage to journalism, what informed that decision?
Resp: It's because we also want expertise in journalism, we have people who write all kinds of trash. So the Foundation said, "we can also get into that". Maybe sometime later, we can also look at another sector of the economy so that we challenge them to sit up. We also want the best in journalism, not this pocket-hungry or whatever journalists who go cap-in-hands looking for brown envelopes, no. We want people who are strong in journalism, so that your story is straight to the point, your story does not have legal implications which can even overthrow you, your story is concrete, your story is something that can sell. So the Board of trustees decided to do this and called it "Ray Ekpu". Ray Ekpu we know, was in the "Chronicle" and he rose through the ranks to what he became nationally and internationally. So we said Ray Ekpu is our own, we're not going to say "Dele Giwa" who is from somewhere else. We tagged the prize after our own. So, if you do investigative journalism, if you can measure up on how he used to write in News Watch. Those days, I bought News Watch every week, I read his story and I'm captivated and I want to write like him, but I'm a Mathematician. I can't write English, I do write but you know what I mean, not too much English. That was what informed the Foundation to get in there.
Ques: Going forward, what role would you like to play as your contribution to bettering the Foundation?
Resp: I'm still part of the Foundation; I just retired from the University service. I’m very much around, I still play my role, God helping we'll see how the Foundation can grow and we'll see how we'll collaborate with whoever wants to collaborate with us to move the Foundation forward, not necessarily for the name of the Foundation but for the bettering of the education sector because it is not the name of the Foundation that is so important but if education is really handled the way it should be in this State, then, we'll be happy. The Foundation owners like the board of trustees will be happy if education is addressed properly in Akwa Ibom State.
