MATHEMATICS is not a subject many learners gravitate towards and the Ministry of Education has been continuously trying to make the learning of this particular subject more interactive and encouraging for learners.

With this in mind, the final round of the first-ever, Math’s Bee Competition, concluded on last Friday at the National Centre for Education, Research and Development (NCERD).

Dave Chowtie, a pupil representing Graham’s Hall Primary School, emerged the victor of the competition. His competitors were Kyle Melville from North Georgetown Primary School; Mikaeel Nedd from St. Ambrose Primary School; Akeem Fowler from Stella Maris Primary School; Kyra Adams from West Ruimveldt Primary School; and Jaden La Rose from Winfer Gardens Primary School.

The quiz lasted for three rounds which ended with a tiebreaker between Melville and Nedd; the former came out ahead of the competition.

Asked about their preparation, the pupils said they invested much time and were assisted by their teachers and parents.

Fowler, who aspires to be a surgeon and thinks of mathematics as a hobby, said that he devoted at least eight hours daily towards preparing for the quiz.

Meanwhile, Chowtie, whose mother and teacher quizzed him regularly, related that the competition was “easy” as he has “done it many times [before]”.

Adams, the lone female, said that one day she wants to open a school that will have an emphasis on extracurricular activities and “competition like these”. She noted that the math competitions “push us to study and be proud of what we have”.

District Education Officer (DEO) of the primary division, Adrian Elgin, said that the inter-school Math Quiz Competition was one of the many initiatives generated by the Department of Education to boost pupils’ academic performance.

Elgin added that the competition has motivated the pupils to study and there has been a Georgetown-wide improvement in mathematics at the primary school level.

Math Coordinator at the Georgetown Department of Education, Corrinne Osborne, said the Primary School’s Math Quiz began last year October with 27 schools contesting.
“The competition would have motivated teachers to focus on their teaching strategies to get the children to respond,” said Osborne.

She added, that to “get our children involved, we needed to raise the standard of mathematics… we did this through visits to schools, clinical sessions, one-on-one sessions… and through parent forums.”

Additionally, Osborne said that the competition focused on assessing three areas; namely, knowledge, algorithmic, and reasoning.

She revealed that in the knowledge area, Chowtie and Adams scored the highest, while in algorithmic, Melville performed the best and Fowler got the highest score in the reasoning section. (DPI)