Raising the Bar in Maths: Dr. Abrams’ Mission to Help Guyana’s Struggling Learners

Sometimes a Mathematics grade is more than a number.

Sometimes, 12% is a warning. It can represent a child who has fallen behind, a classroom in which she has stopped asking questions, a family that does not know where to turn, and a widening gap between what a learner needs and what she is able to grasp.

Dr. Karen Abrams, Founder and Executive Director of STEMGuyana and an advocate for technology and STEM education, encountered such a case when a grandmother approached her about her granddaughter, a secondary-school student who had received 12% in Mathematics for an entire school term. The educator shared the story in a recent Kaieteur News’ column, titled: From 12% to 60%: What One Learner taught us about Guyana’s mathematics crisis. Rather than viewing the grade simply as failure, Abrams saw an opportunity to understand what had gone wrong and determine what could be done to help the learner recover.