First Master’s Degree in Mathematics in Guinea Bissau
This project, financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, represents an initiative of the Tchico Té Training Unit at the Higher Schools of Education of Guinea Bissau, and has attracted the participation of 30 teachers from the country’s training schools. Throughout two years, they shall attend curricula units in an intensive and in-person format. At the end, they will write dissertations within the fields of mathematics, statistics or didactics under the supervision of professors from the University of Minho, the institution responsible for scientific coordination.
According to the Training Unit’s director, Ibrahima Djaló, this Master’s Degree aims to “launch research in this area in Guinea Bissau, contributing towards scientific autonomy and improving the quality of mathematics teaching” and, consequently, boosting “national development”.
This new Master’s Degree arises from the now over decade long collaboration between the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the University of Minho to bring about the curricular reform of primary education in Guinea Bissau. This also falls within the scope of the Foundation’s action line – Educating the STEMs –, which strives to foster the talent of young persons and strengthen post-graduate education in the STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), in order to raise the levels of specialisation and qualification in these areas, especially mathematics.