National primary maths contest holds March 4

The dates for the semifinal and grand finale of the 14th National Mathematics Competition organized by the National Mathematics Centre (NMC) and the Nigeria Tulip International Colleges (NTIC) for gifted primary 5 and 6 pupils are March 4 and 15, this year.

This year’s edition began with tests that took place in 52 locations across the entire federation with a total of 32, 400 primary 5 and 6 pupils vying for 15 special scholarships tenable at any of the 17 branches of NTIC.

Managing Director of NTIC, Mr. Orhan Kertim, the second stage of the competition is to take place at NTIC schools in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Ogun and Yobe state on March 4 while the top candidates are to be invited to an award presentation ceremonies scheduled to take place in Abuja and Kano on March 15, this year.

He said a total of 27, 000 pupils participated in the competition last year adding that the younger generation can conquer the prevalent fear of Mathematics.

“We have been conducting the tests in collaboration with NMC since 2013; we started with the participation of 800 pupils and now, it takes place in all states of the federation and in the Federal Capital Territory.

“Our objective for organizing this competition is due to recognition that mathematics is the key subject for scienceoriented courses and there is a well-known problem of pupils being afraid of mathematics; we decided to organize this competition towards eliminating the phobia or fear for Mathematics,” he said.

He said winners in the maths contest would be given scholarships to study in NITC.

“Also, we offer scholarship for successful pupils; the competition has two legs; in the first one, the best three pupils in each state are offered 100 per cent scholarship in an NTIC school.

“In the second leg, 15 successful candidates in each zone are offered 100% scholarship and we do special training for them at an NTIC school, for them to participate actively in other national and international competitions; for example, in 2016, those students we prepared for such competitions won 26 international medals and made us and Nigeria proud,” Kertim stated.