Monday, February 7, 2011

TUTOR DONATES MATHS BOOKS TO TAMALE LIBRARY (PAGE 22, FEB 1, 2011)

A MATHEMATICS tutor and author, Mr Elvis Alhassan has urged students who patronise libraries not to limit their reading materials to only story books, but to expand their horizon to cover other areas, including Mathematics.
According to him, libraries have a stock of books on various subjects and each of the subjects was of relevance to both academic and practical life.
“Maths in particular is a subject that is very critical to one’s academic success. At various levels, Maths tests are conducted and therefore students have no excuse to leave out Maths when using the library,” he stated.
Mr Alhassan made these remarks when he presented some copies of his new Mathematics book – El Ak Series Core Mathematics for Senior High Schools (SHSs) in West Africa – to the Northern Regional Library.
This presentation, he explained, was to increase the stock of Mathematics books at the library and equally introduce the book to students and other patrons of the library.
Mr Alhassan, who is currently a senior research assistant and a Masters student at the Department of Applied and Business Mathematics at the University for Development Studies (UDS), debunked the assertion that Mathematics was a tough subject.
“Anything could be difficult if it is not well-taught,” he stated, adding that “if Mathematics is taught in a more interesting, participatory and practical manner, students would easily appreciate the subject.”
The author described his book as one which is “self explanatory” and would enable students to follow it independently without supervision. “Each topic treated follows the trend of the new WASSCE syllabus taught in the Senior High Schools and it contains solved objectives and theory past questions,” he added.
The Northern Regional Librarian, Mr Aaron Kuwornu commended the author for endeavouring to present copies of his book to the library.
He said it was important that authors present copies of their publications to the library because “it is at the library that many students and readers discover these books.”
He also noted that a proper library must have stock of every book, irrespective of the subject, so as to serve as an effective reference point.