“Back when I was a kid I found books very exciting”

Our guest for this week’s edition is called Hanibal Tekeste. Born in 1971 in Asmara- “Mai Temenay” and stayed here through out all of his childhood and adolescence. In 1996 he graduated with first degree from the University of Asmara and then upgraded his “mathematics and statics” degree to masters’ degree in South Africa – Cape Town. He so far contributed in many aspects of education here in Eritrea and he also published nine books. He is a good teacher and a good family man; father of three. Let’s look at the interview we had with Mr. Abel.

-Tell us about your childhood as a student.

Ok, honestly… I started gaining some interest in school and my studies in the 6th grade, ever since then I’ve been one of the most rewarded students, I was always on the top three. Back then the subjects that I loved and I was good at were math and English.

-How did you end up liking math?

I wouldn’t be able to tell specifically. I found my self good around that subject, I could dare to say that I found math easier that any other subjects, also because my family always helped me with things that as a child would skip if I don’t understand them or anything like that. They would buy me a lot of book and help me exercise my equations… their follow up helped me a lot.

-So your parents and family supported you a lot. Right?

Yeah. Definitely, there are no doubts on this one. They played a big role in making me someone that enjoyed going to school and study; they made me realize the importance of school. Specially my dad.

-OK. What did you do after graduating?

I worked as a teacher in “Segeneyti” for almost three years. And in 1998 I published my first book. It was my first try out but the response I got from students, parents, teachers and schools was so encouraging. After that I started working at the Educational Data Analysis for two years and then I went to South Africa in 2002, stayed there for two years and once I was here I worked in the Educational Assessment Section for another two years. Right now I am a math lecturer in E.I.T.

-What about your books?

So far I’ve published nine of ‘them. All of them aim to give a helping hand to our students and the readers in general. I always put in mind that what I write got to massively helpful to all of the junior and high school students. It gives me pleasure and joy to help Eritrean students in gaining the right amount of confidence they need as students.

-There is one book of yours that is titled “Eri-Sa Matric Mathematics”. Tell us about it, it sounds interesting.

It is interesting! Mainly because the book presents a mixture of the Eritrean matriculation curriculum as well as the South African one. South Africa has a very developed educational technics. Their educational system is quite similar to the European one so I thought that mixing ours with theirs could help our students have a wider prospection.

-What kind of effort do you put when you write your books?

I usually read a lot of books my self, I make sure I am always updated with the latest systems and I contact a lot of teachers. Because after all, my goal is to help our students with their studies so the books have to nourish them with latest and simplest ways to face their education.

-Are your aims reaching the right goal?

Well yeah, better than ever. In fact this is just the beginning, in the books we leave e-mail addresses or phone numbers and the students can contact the headquarters for any kind of help. I have seen that a lot of parents and teachers have a lot of helpful and inspiring comments; I am going to work harder on that.

-Nowadays may students tend to believe that they run short on studying time, they say that they don’t have time. What do you have to say about this?

They run short on the “studying technics”, that’s what it is. Studying has to be an ordinary thing that a student must do with out being forced or forcing their selves. It has to be as natural as hanging out with friends, playing with brothers and sisters, chatting with family or what ever it is. I believe that every student around the world has talent but they need two more things: interest and dedication. They have to be purely conscious about the importance of knowledge. They can easily acquire them if they want so the keys to a better and successful future are in their hands.

-Do you think that knowledge has an end?

No! Absolutely not… so long the world doesn’t stop, education will be limitless. That’s the good thing about it!!!

-It is indeed! What is that you plan for the future?

It’s all connected to books… I plan to bring up more materials to the students including elementary schools students.

-Well good luck, it was a pleasure having you.
Thanks!