This is a session of Topic 9: An international perspective on Statistics education Full topic list
(Thursday 6th, 14:00-15:30)
Teaching Statistics in African and other developing countries
Organisers
Abstract
Statistics plays a major role in the development of programmes that address social, economical and political structures in Africa. Production institutions in the area of agriculture, fishery, finance, health and forestry utilize statistics, in policy development. The need for expertise in statistics in Africa cannot be emphasized, yet the subject is introduced at a latter date in schools or remains unrecognized. The subject is often introduced within the curriculum of mathematics in many education institutions in Africa.
The educators need to recognize the role of statistics in many development programmes and thus have it included in the curriculum right from primary school to university. To achieve this, the subject needs to be taught in both primary and secondary teachers’ colleges. Simplified textbooks that place emphasis on statistics and use examples based on African set-up need to be written. It is when students in Africa relate to the examples used in the subject that interest can increase. The ICOTS provides a forum for scientist in Africa to present and discuss the status of statistics education in Africa. Suggestions for the way forward are also made.
Papers
 | 
