Following dismal performances of students in mathematics examinations, a lecturer in the Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Ibadan, Dr. Ishola Akindele Salami has invented a hip-hop song to solve maths problems in primary schools.
While speaking with newsmen on the invention, he stated that the hip-hop song tagged MATMUSIC consists of math ideas, principles and procedures.
“It was discovered that children love to listen to hip hop music. This is because of the rhythm and the danceable melody it has. It was also discovered that when children love a given music, they tend to remember all the lyrics. So, if Mathematics principles, formulae, ideas can be put into a child-friendly music like hip hop, this should enhance the learning of the subject. It is against this background that hip hop music on primary mathematics was written and composed,” he said.
The 2019 WASSCE results released indicated that out of the 11, 892 candidates who sat for the examinations, only 3, 102 obtained five credits in English Language and Mathematics.
The results of WAEC published by the National Bureau of Statistics covering 2016 and 2018 indicated that candidates with five credits and above with both Mathematics and English in the southwest zone were less than 40 percent.