Seminar on use of Math Workbooks.

On 5th September 2024, there was a workshop organized by National Department of Education and JICA. In the workshop, a Japanese textbook company, Gakkotosho Co., Ltd., presented their findings from a survey they recently conducted in some pilot provinces in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to understand the impact of the use of math workbooks on students performances in grades 3 and 4.

The math workbooks utilized in the survey were developed by Gakkotosho as a supplementary material to be used by primary school students in PNG. At this seminar, several pilot head teachers, primary school teachers and teacher college lecturers reported that the math workbooks have a potential to improve the capacity of students as students can individually own math workbooks to themselves and bring their workbooks home and do homework with the support and supervision of their parents.

Among the teachers attended from pilot schools, a teacher from Miline Bay Province also acknowledged the layout of the workbook that allows teachers to provide examples and allows students to independently solve math problems or for peer sharing among students in a classroom, making math lessons interesting for them.

Gakkotosho was previously engaged to support the National Department of Education in formulating national math and science textbooks for grades 3 to 6 aligning with Standard Based Curriculum (SBC) under the Project for Quality Improvement of Maths and Science and Education (QUISME) which was implemented by NDoE with the support of JICA.

In his presentation at the seminar, the Chief Consultant of Gakkotosho, Mr. Ito Akinori reported that the survey had identified some significant improvement in students’ performances after using the math workbook. This findings and positive experience sharing from the provinces has motivated the representatives from the provinces in attendance to purchase the math workbooks to be used in primary schools in their provinces.

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