Last year, the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu announced that plans were being made to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in indigenous languages. But like with most promises the government makes, they disappoint and the citizens are left to make things happen for themselves.
That is exactly what Cynthia Onwuchuruba Bryte-Chinule did. Cynthia is a mathematics teacher in Port Harcourt and she teaches her students the subject in local languages, specifically Igbo and Nigerian pidgin.
(Photo: Techpoint.ng)
She’s a first-class mathematics graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University and she founded PEEL Initiative, a non-profit organization particularly interested in improving education in Africa especially mathematics and impacting the lives of underprivileged kids through education.
65 million Nigerians are uneducated and an even larger, unconfirmed number do not have a firm grasp of the English language. Should that stop them from getting some form of education? No, and Cynthia seems to think so too. Her initiative runs free tutoring programs for kids: every Saturday she teaches over 40 kids and on Thursdays, she teaches at the Port Harcourt Remand Home.
A lot of her students are school dropouts who do not understand the English language, so she’s simplifying it by explaining it in the languages that they do understand. She gives them math equations to solve in Nigerian pidgin using concepts they could relate to:
“For example, trying to find the sum of 5+7 became; ‘If you carry 5 yam join am with another seven yam, how many yam you go get?’ in pidgin.”
She makes short video tutorials on Facebook and YouTube in Igbo and Nigerian pidgin, which she also shares across social media, and the people love it.
She currently funds the initiative and her educational projects from her own pocket, but her team has recently started reaching out to organisations for support. But she won’t wait for funding to continue achieving her goals.
Credit: konbini.com
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