Mathematics School Tournament encourages primary school learners to develop interest
|Published
Members of the Make A Difference organisation during one of their meetings. Picture: Supplied
Pretoria - South Africa is ranked among the lowest in the world when it comes to learner performance in maths and science.
To counter this, Make A Difference has launched a non-profit community project called the Mathematics School Tournament to encourage primary school learners to develop an interest, improve and excel in the subject.
Prizes will be given to learners who win, but the main objective is to see a 100% improvement in the subject.
"This will not only help them at their primary level, but it will enable them to understand mathematics better even at secondary level, since they would have been equipped with the necessity of basic mathematics according to the current curriculum standard,“ Solly Marima, who is part of the organising team for the tournament, said.
Marima said that this would help in removing the negative mindset that learners had about maths.
“We need to empower our underprivileged learners through mathematics. Remember maths has no gender nor race,” he said.
The tournament will take place in Hammanskraal in April, and 13 schools have been recommended to participate.
“The mathematics pass rate around Hammanskraal is very low according to statistics, and so the competition will help to improve the pass rate,” Marima added.
“The Department of Education is also involved, because we are partnering with them towards this one common goal.”
It will be held in three phases: the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and eventually the finals.
During the competition the papers will be sent to the schools, and after the first trial, each school will be required to send their best top five learners to the organisation.
It will then conduct and invigilate the whole process up to the finals.
“Learners from Grade 4 to 7 will be given equal opportunity to enter the competition,” said Marima, who added that the participants will be offered biweekly classes for two months prior to the tournament.
“Each learner will be offered a mathematics study guide, with a memo, that will help them in preparing for the tournament, and learners will have tutors available throughout the tournament, who will be assisting them with maths problems they may encounter.”
The tournament will take place after the first school term.
For the final round of tournament parents will be invited to witness what their children are capable of, after which they will receive prizes yet to be determined.
Pretoria News