The National Mathematical Center, Abuja has organized a 3-week long training. The training is for postgraduate students in statistics.
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The National Mathematical Centre (NMC) has organised a three weeks training for postgraduate students of statistics to reduce the phobia in the learning and teaching of the course in tertiary institutions.
Prof. Fumilayo Saporu, Coordinator, Statistics Programme of the centre, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday at Sheda in Kwali Area Council of Federal Capital Territory.
Saporu said that the selection of participants for the training was based on the six geopolitical zones, which had five each.
He said that the centre got over 450 applications but only 30 participants were considered out of whom 28 were currently undergoing training on probability, distribution and stochastic processes.
He said for each week experts were drawn from tertiary institutions to give lectures on the three topics of interest.
He also said the criteria for participants’ selection were that the participant must be indigenes the zones they represented; must have first degree in statistics related courses; possess or registered for a master’s degree or registered for PhD programme.
Saporu, however, appealed to the Federal Government for financial interventions to enable the centre to equip the classrooms with modern learning facilities.
“Our major challenge is funding, because we need light in the environment for 24 hours, improvement on the classroom facilities. We need better classroom environment; although we have some facilities, they are not sufficient.
“Some of the classroom fittings, such as desks and chairs, need to be properly furnished, because it has been long they were changed and they need upgrading,’’ he said.
One of the guest lecturers, Prof. Mbe Nja, Department of Statistics, University of Calaba, said that the training was mainly for lecturers of statistics in the tertiary institutions across the country.
Nja said that the training was to refresh the knowledge of the younger lecturers, ranging from assistant lecturers to lecturer 1 on the learning and teaching of the course.
According to him, using interactive approach in teaching the course will make the students not to feel bored.