Math-making: Tanzanian team in Shanghai to add up education score
The math learning events for Tanzanian policymakers and educators kick off on Monday.
About 50 policymakers and educators from Tanzania are in the city to learn math education from Shanghai.
This is the first international delegation that the Shanghai-based Teacher Education Center under the auspices of UNESCO has received face to face since it was officially launched in 2021 due to the pandemic, though it has continued to carry out online exchanges.
In 2021, Shanghai Normal University's research institute of international and comparative education, where the education center is located, organized an online training session for Tanzanian math educators to help improve their teaching capabilities. And last year, the cooperation went further with Chinese math educators visiting Tanzania to carry out face-to-face guidance while online training session was also organized.
Over the next two weeks, the delegation will be able to not only hear Shanghai education officials and teachers share experiences in policymaking and math teaching, but also go to local schools to have a close-up view on how math classes are delivered.
A welcoming ceremony on Monday
Tanzania is reviewing its national education policy and mathematics has been given an amount of importance in the curriculum, said Franklin Jasson Rwezimula, deputy permanent secretary of education of mainland Tanzania's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, at a welcoming ceremony held at the education center on Monday.
"Mathematics is one of the core subjects involved in primary and secondary schools as Tanzania is developing collective measures to improve the performance of students in basic education," he noted, adding that he hoped his delegation will learn the best practices and experiences in Shanghai to help improve the east African country's education policy and teachers' capacity building.
Albert Paul Kissima, a curriculum developer from the Tanzania Institute of Education, participated in the online sessions from 2021 to 2022.
He revealed that during the training the educators, similar to Shanghai teachers, made preparations for some topics in math teaching, with Chinese experts providing insights to complement their preparations.
"In general, the educators appreciated all the sessions and they are ready to share their experience with their counterparts who did not get the opportunity to participate in the sessions," Kissima said.
"And now we have got an opportunity to visit Shanghai to learn face to face and to interact with other teachers in local schools. We hope that we will learn a lot and we will share a lot of experiences."
He said he was looking forward to seeing how math is taught in Shanghai, how information and communications technology can be applied in teaching and learning, and how mathematical concepts are explained, which enables students to learn it effectively.
Liang Xiaoyan, lead education specialist of the World Bank, said the training session came at a critical time for Tanzania as the students there were weak in mathematics. She said the country's recent Certificate of Secondary Education Examination revealed that 89 percent of students failed in mathematics.
Liang pointed out that over the past decade, since Shanghai students achieved remarkable results in the PISA test in 2009 and 2012, Shanghai Normal University and the education center, through the World Bank programs, have provided technical and financial assistance to various African countries, including Kenya, Zambia, Sudan, and now Tanzania on teacher education and math education.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai math teaching methodology has also attracted the United Kingdom to organize several rounds of mutual visits and exchanges between British and Shanghai math teachers. The English version of a local math textbook series for students – "Real Shanghai Mathematics" – has been used in some British schools.
A Tanzanian delegation member asks a question about Shanghai's education policy on Monday.
