750 students are set to participate in round two of the Kenya Mathematical Olympiad 2023 contest organized by the Centre for Mathematics Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) in July after passing the first round held in 300 registered schools across the country.
The second round will be held at CEMASTEA regional centers where the top 50 students will qualify to participate in round 3 of the competition in September.
Speaking at Ngenia Boys Secondary School in Limuru, Kiambu county, CEMASTEA trainer John Oyuga said that they are promoting the contest in order to nurture learners’ critical thinking abilities.
“Many times students pursuing subjects at university level have been missing out because of the performance at secondary school, with mathematics being a key subject in all faculties and careers requiring its application,” he said.
Oyuga said that the students participating in the contest will receive additional training noting that they want to build a pool of critical thinkers.
“The selected teams will be trained in preparation for a more challenging regional and international contest, so we will have to take them through some more training on applications and not just calculation,” he added.
The school Principal Paul Warutere noted that 50 students from different forms in the school were participating in the contest.
He said that CEMASTEA had done a tremendous job in capacity-building of teachers in both Mathematics and Sciences by enabling them to deliver their core mandate.
Warutere said that his students’ morale had been boosted and encouraged them to work harder.
“My students’ mentality on mathematics and sciences have changed after they were trained and they are more committed to improving their skills and performing better. The contest has made them more focused and are working harder to be among the winners of this contest,” he said.
The school head of the Mathematics department Mose Bernard said that his department conducted an internal evaluation where they picked 100 students to participate in the contest.
“Mathematics is just another subject, most students however normally have the wrong notion that it’s a hard subject. It is just the attitude. We are fighting that attitude,” Mose said.
Participating students will receive a certificate of participation upon completion while the top students will receive certificates of merit.
The contest is being held in partnership with Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) which is domiciled at University of Waterloo in Canada and University of Nairobi.
By Felix Wanderi
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