Left to Right (Regional Delegate in charge of Secondary Education , Far North Region, Rector of the University of Maroua, AIMS Cameroon Centre President, Director of ENS Maroua

The AIMS Teacher Training Program in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation launched a laboratory at École Normale Superieure Kongola, Maroua. This laboratory is the second of its kind, with the first hosted at ENS Yaoundé, AIMS TTP headquarters.

The four-in-one facility comprises a Computer Laboratory, a Teaching Simulation Laboratory, an Interactive Classroom and a Distant Learning Classroom. The lab is connected to high bandwidth internet and equipped with cutting edge technology, including 40 computers, a video recording system, an interactive smartboard, RACHEL servers for offline access to encyclopedia, a server room with two servers, and a smart TV for teleconferences.

The laboratory will provide teaching resources and software like Geogebra in a bid to ameliorate the pedagogy of mathematics teachers at the secondary level. The video recording system will give teachers the opportunity to watch and auto-evaluate their lesson delivery. This launch will coincide with the second training of pre-service mathematics student teachers which ran from the 5^th to the 7^th of December at ENS Maroua.
This Centre includes the Teacher Training Laboratory (TTL), which is the second of its kind, with the first at ENS Yaoundé, home to the TTP coordination centre.

Present at the official opening ceremony was the Rector of the University of Maroua, representing the Minister of Higher Education, who expressed his profound gratitude to AIMS For choosing and finding his University worthy of hosting such a world class cutting-edge technological edifice. In his spirit of gratitude he pledged to provide the laboratory with optical fiber internet, a technical staff to manage the laboratory who will in turn be trained by the AIMS TTP staff to ensure its smooth running. He however expressed concerns about the existence of only one laboratory for the Far North, North, Adamawa and neighboring countries who come in to study. He suggested another be opened in one of these regions to cater to the exponential teacher population. He thanked the team on ground for a job well done in revolutionizing teaching in Cameroon. Also present, was the Regional Delegate for Secondary Education for the Far North Region, representing the Minister of Secondary Education who had nothing but gratitude for the facility that will improve on the teaching methods of teachers thereby impacting the results for secondary school Mathematics in the Far north Region. The AIMS-Cameroon.

The AIMS-Cameroon Centre President, in his capacity, thanked the Head of Government, H.E, President Paul Biya for his unwavering support via his collaborators in ensuring the smooth running of the institution and providing the necessary supportDignitaries and the Trainees

to see that AIMS projects a reality. He also said the laboratory will help teachers move from the concrete to abstract teaching and vise-versa by immersing themselves in learning conditions that will improve on the quality and methodology used in teaching mathematics. He went further to stress that we cannot move forward as a country with development at the forefront of our agenda, if Mathematics is being treated as an abstract science, limited to a number of people. Prof. Mama ended up by saying, “the teaching of mathematics, must be democratized in order to make it simple and comprehensible

This launch leveraged on the beginning of the 2^nd pre-service training of mathematics student teachers at ENS Maroua. The 100 selected student teachers from the 3rd and 5th year of the Higher Teachers Training College, Maroua are said to go on the field after their graduation. This training comes in the nick of time to introduce to the teachers  the necessary Knowledge, skills and attitudes needed in their teaching practice in order to not only pique the students’ interest but to use those acquired aptitudes to make them excel in this subject.

AIMS TTP Director in the heart of training

This training is a 3 day workshop facilitated by Master Trainers on:

1. Reading and exploitation of the mathematics syllabus;
2. Different pedagogic documents;
3. Qualities of a good mathematics lesson;
4. Lesson preparation and Delivery;
5. Mathematical thinking and Problem Solving;
6. Conception and Implementation of activities in the maths lesson;
7. Gender responsive pedagogy;
8. Management of math as a subject.
9. Community of Teachers
10. Community of Practice
11. Different school councils

This training is a reconfirmation of the AIMS-NEI mission to propel Africa’s brightest students to their ultimate potential by giving them top notch training in mathematics. We believe that equipping mathematics teachers with the appropriate tools will fine tune their pedagogy, thus making more students interested in mathematics at an early stage and grooming them into the much needed problem solvers of our continent.