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NASSMAC - Surprises as 16-Year Old Public School Student Emerges WinnerLagos, Jul 01, 2011 (Daily Independent/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- When the 2011 Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC), began little did 16-year old son of a trader, Akindele Nurein Oyetobi of Iganmode Grammar School, Ota Ogun State knows that he will be announced winner of the competition. According to him, he had over-prepared for the competition because he knew the kind of schools he would meet at the competition and coming from a public school background, which to many, is a waste of time for students in those schools due to the level of decadence in the schools. Words, therefore, could not express how he felt when his name was announced as the first position in the competition out of the over 34,000 students from both private and public schools nationwide that participated in the competition. The competition, organised by Promasidor Nigeria Limited for students in both junior and senior secondary schools as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is meant to promote and encourage students to offer mathematics as a subject and to also remove the phobia students have for the subjects. Amuda Tope of Greater Tomorrow International College, Ikare, Ondo State and Nwokotubo Charles of Graceland International School, Port Harcourt, came second and third respectively, at the senior category. Also at the junior category, Momoh Abdulrazaq of Charles Dale Memorial International school Port Harcourt, Agboniko Emmanuel of DSC Technical High School, Aladja, Delta state and Aghaji Ugochukwu came first second and third respectively. Speaking at the prize giving ceremony which took place at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, the Managing Director of Promasidor, Chief Keith Richard, said the primary objective of the CSR was to arouse and re-awaken the interest in mathematics amongst secondary school students as a roadmap to nation building. He said over the years, Promasidor had continuously expanded the horizon of the competition from 50 examination centres to 200 centers, from 4455 participating schools to over 11,000 schools, from 15,000 students to more than 34,000 students adding that the monetary and non-monetary prizes had also increased astronomically. His words: "From small humble beginning in year 2001, NASSMAC has grown into a credible and successful examination that all Nigerian secondary schools, teachers and students want to associate and identify with. Today, NASSMAC is one of the most credible examinations in Nigeria. "It might interest you to know that NASSMAC question papers have never 'leaked' and the schools and participants completely trust our body of examiners who are responsible for grading the results. We are very proud of this feat and we pledged to sustain it. Our vision is to give all eligible Nigerian children the opportunity to participate in the competition and by so doing, improve their performance in mathematics. " Keith further noted that the current pass for Mathematics in WAEC and NECO possed a huge challenge not only to the teachers, schools and the relevant government agencies, but also to all parents, Nigerians and indeed well meaning companies and organisations, who had taken it upon themselves to support relevant stakeholders in stemming this tide. "With the current growth in our economy and our vision 20-2020, we urgently need to develop the right human resource capability that will drive, support, sustain and surpass our visions," he added Also speaking at the event is the Director of National Mathematics Centre (NMC), Professor Sam Ale, encouraged the students to continue in their love for the subject adding that the subject had a peculiar nature that once assimilated by the student, leads to knowledge of other subjects, especially sciences, which involved a lot of mathematics. Winner in the junior category, Momoh Abdulrazaq, while speaking with Daily Independent, said his success is as a result of hard work and the grace of God. He said he had been preparing for the competition and that he knew he would make it to the top. "Although I was not expecting that I will be the first in this category but I know I cannot exceed third. I feel very great and I am grateful to God almighty for giving me this opportunity," he said. His teacher Nwachukwu Emmanuel, said the school came second last year but that he had made up his mind that this year his school would be the one to produce the winner. "I made up my mind this time around that my school will produce the first and I worked toward it and we made it," he said. He also informed that the competition had really helped students in his school perform better in mathematics in both internal and external examinations. "Now, my school record 99 per cent pass in mathematics because everybody is now developing interest in this subject because of this competition as everyone of them want to be addressed as Cowbell NASSMAC Ambassador," he added. Also the mathematics teacher that produced winner in the senior category, Atinsola Hakeem, who was so impressed by the performance of his student, said the preparation had started when the students were in SS1 and that the steps the school took in choosing them was based on their performances in mathematics and Further-mathematics. His words: "The first step we take was to look at their report card for their performance in mathematics and Further-mathematics. The ones we see that's performing very well we start grooming them for this competition. We initially selected 10 students but later reduced them to four and after setting examination for them in-house, we now chose the best among the four students who will represent the school." However at the senior category, the first prize winner got a cash prize of N300,000, while the second and third got N250,000 and N200,000 respectively. At the junior category the first got N250,000, while the second and third got N200,000 and N150,000 respectively. Also the first 15 in the both categories were also given cash prizes and other prizes including laptops. The winning schools were not left out, as the first school get five desktop computers and printers, the second three desktop computers and printers, while the third got one desktop computer and printers among other prizes. |