The workshop was held to observe the Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pie (?), which falls on March 14 of every year The date 14th was chosen because 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of pie.

The participating schools for the workshop included; Labone Senior High, Preset Pace Setters and St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School.  Speaking at the event, Dr Jacob Ashong, Director of the Ghana Planetarium Science Centre and Founder of the Astronomical Society of Ghana took time to engage the students in various Mathematical drills.

He also emphasised the readiness of his Science Centre to advance the course of science research and tools that would help make learning and teaching of mathematics stress free.   Dr Ashong also encouraged the students to visit the Planetarium Centre and Science Facilities often to enhance their research in science and mathematics.

It is observed that many students show least interest in pursuing a higher education in programmes which had a single mathematics related course.  “If this scenario continues then the Nation might face a serious shortage in producing the needed human capacity in STEM based Professions like Medicine, Engineering, Statistics and Economics which are most needed to develop every nation and Ghana for that matter,” he said.

In several developed countries this day is observed by eating pies, throwing pies and offering some special discounts on Pizza just to show the significance of the Constant pie. Initiations like these are observed to make the students aware of the importance of mathematics and to whip up their interest in the pursuance of any mathematics related programme at the tertiary level.