…as ‘Ngwo Yellow Pages’ declares state of emergency in mathematics
Ngwo, a community in Enugu State, has initiated an annual mathematics competition aimed at inspiring academic excellence and nurturing problem-solving skills among young students, in a strategic move to strengthen human capital development through education.
Ngwo Yellow Pages (NUP), a community development initiative team, in collaboration with Henrietta Nwabuisi-Nnadi Mathematics Foundation (HN2MF), initiated the Annual Maths Olympiad to ignite passion for mathematics among children from the town.
Ijeoma Offor, secretary of HN2MF, and co-convener/secretary of Ngwo Yellow Pages, told BusinessDay that after the 2022/23 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results, where many students performed very low, especially in mathematics, the concerned citizens of the community took the ugly development to ‘Ngwo Yellow Pages’, a platform for educated sons and daughters of the town, who work together to proffer reasonable solutions to identified problems in Ngwo, especially around education, skills, empowerment, and employment.
According to Offor, the foundation got involved with the NYP to find a solution to the mathematics myths identified clogging the academic trajectory of young Ngwo boys and girls.
This synergy, she said, gave birth to what is today known as ‘Ngwo Annual Maths Olympiad’ organised for children in Basic four to six, and Junior Secondary School One to Senior secondary School Three (JSS1 to SSS 3).
She explained that HN²MF fully provides the sponsorship, while NYP provides the volunteering workforce, human resources needed, and technical support.
She emphasised that the HN²MF not only sponsors financially, but also has a board that is made up of members who provide the human resources needed for the success of the project.
The annual mathematics festival is aimed at boosting the morale of children from the Ngwo community or residing and schooling in the community to compete, learn about mathematics, and ignite a passion for numbers.
According to the organisers, the competition comes in two stages: first, the selection of top mathematics performing students, then the examinations to determine the overall winners.
Eligibility for the competition is that interested students must be indigenes of Ngwo in any school or non-indigenes schooling in the community.
“If you’re schooling in Ngwo or you’re from Ngwo and your school is outside Ngwo, you can still register. As long as you’re a resident in Ngwo, you’re a member of the community,” she said.
At the end of each year’s competitions, winners are rewarded with medals, educational materials, and digital tools to enhance their academic goals.
“We have a list of rewards ranking from digital tools such as Laptops and Tablets. We also have educational materials such as textbooks, exercise books, mathematics sets, school bags, plaques, and medals, among others, for winners,” Offor emphasised.
Besides, she said, there are graded financial rewards for the different positions.
“For now and due to funds available to the foundation, our financial rewards are for the first, second, and third positions in all the nine participating classes (Primary 4 – 6 and JS 1 to SS3),” she noted.
Meanwhile, Offor explained that Osita Ngwu, representing Enugu West Senatorial District facilitated a free JAMB Academy known as Ngwo JAMB Academy, which helped the community to discover about the poor mathematics performance of their children.
According to her, this discovery fueled the Maths Olympiad festival.
The ‘Ngwo Maths Olympiad’ completion, which started with 1,100 entries and has improved to over 1,500 entries.
Some of the past winners at Ngwo Maths Olympiad for SS3 include Ogbuene Ifebuche, from Girls Secondary School, Ngwo; Ani Kamsiyochukwu, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo; and Ani Kenechukwu, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo.
SS2 category has Nyema Emmanuel, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo; Nnachetam Ewezughachukwu, from The Embodiment of Love Academy, Ebe; and Ugwu Chinecherem, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo.
SS1 category winners include Ugwualor Chigozie, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo; Eze Udochukwu, from Colliery Comprehensive Technical College, Enugu-Ngwo; and Anioke Goodluck, from Hidden Treasure High School, Ngwo.
JSS3 winners include Albert Success, from Beacon Light College, Ameke-Ngwo; Ude Treasure, Girls Secondary School, Ngwo; and Ozougwu Favour, from Federal Government College, Enugu, among others.
