50,000 pupils sit for 2015 Cowbell exams

Students during an examination.
| credits: File copy

No less than 50,000 pupils sat for the first stage examination of this year’s Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition, the organisers, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, have announced.

The company’s Category Manager, Mr. Abiodun Ayodeji, made this known at the Immaculate Heart Secondary School, Maryland, Lagos, one of the 184 centres used for the examinations this year.

According to him, 600 pupils sat for the examination at the school alone with many others sitting for the examination in 18 centres in the state.

Ayodeji stated this just as he frowned on the mass failure recorded in the West African Examinations Council’s mathematics examinations.

The urge to develop pupils’ interest in Mathematics, he said, formed the basis upon which the company initiated NASSMAC 16 years ago.

Ayodeji, who said the company, was happy with the success recorded so far in the competition, noted that pupils’ interest in the challenge increases yearly.

The company’s determination to keep the competition alive, he added, prompted it to increase the rewards for this year competition.

According to him, the overall best pupil in the junior and senior categories will win N750,000; while the first and second runners-up will receive with N500,000 and N250,000 respectively.

Ayodeji added that teachers of the overall winning pupils for the junior and senior categories would get N250,000 while those who tutored the second and third winners would receive N200,000 and N150,000 respectively.

To add value to the competition, he said, the company had included a radio programme perspective this year.

A teacher at the Caleb British Academy, Mrs Adaobi Muonagor, who led the school’s team to the centre, commended the company for the initiative.

According to her, the competition is helping in awakening pupils’ interest in Mathematics.

She added that the competition was a credible platform for recognising excellence in Mathematics.