Professor Kwara Nantomah, the first youngest professor of Pure Mathematics in Ghana, shared his journey to becoming a math teacher.
Despite pressure from his family to become a nurse, which was not his interest, he pursued a nursing career to appease them.
However, he lost one of his hands in an accident and was unable to continue with nursing. As he was passionate about teaching, he decided to pursue mathematics as it did not require practical skills.
“Part of the motivation was as a result of a terrible accident I had. I was challenged by the mere fact that we have left and right, but that is just by human notation. From there, I realized that it shouldn’t be a challenge. Mathematics, or pure math for that matter, suited my purpose in some ways because it has little to do with the practical, which I would have been challenged with on the one hand. So, in pure math, it was ok to go,” he narrated.
His lost hand became a motivation for him to prove to his family that he could still succeed. Though changing to writing with his left hand was a significant challenge, determination was the key to his success.
He believes that the fear for mathematics among students in Ghana is due to an improperly built foundation and suggests that tutors make the subject fun to ease students’ fear.
