In today’s advanced world of learning and global competitiveness, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are key drivers of economies. These key areas of study have thrown up a lot of opportunities for forward looking economies to grow their human capital.
Across the globe, investment in education has assumed an entirely new frontier and approach such that organisations have come to realise that building capacity in mathematics represents the driving force in the 21st century and such needs to be catered for.
While other organisations concentrate on throwing money into less knowledge driven venture that have not addressed the growing concerns of mass failure in a key subject like mathematics, forward looking ones have decided to tackle the issue head on. It is therefore not surprising that in realising the huge gain of building human capacity in specialise fields of mathematics.
One of the corporate organisations leading this fight is Promasidor Nigeria Limited through the annual National Secondary Schools Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC)
Through the annual Cowbell Maths competition’s, the company is fostering it objective to arouse and re-awaken interest of students in mathematics at the secondary school level because of the importance of the subject.
In pursuit of its aims of preparing leaders for the future, the competition takes a holistic approach to the development of the student, ensuring that they receive encouragement in mathematics that goes beyond the classroom curriculum. Secondary students are expose to many opportunities that mathematics offers as well as engaging teachers in the various’ schools across the country who also who also benefits from the feat of these students.
Experts say mathematics is a way of reasoning that is unique to human beings. Maths is important because it is the most widely used subject in the world. Every career uses some sort of it. More importantly, doing maths helps the mind to reason and organise complicated situations or problems into clear, simple, and logical steps. Thus, as students learn more maths, the rationale is that their minds will eventually develop into logical entity that can resolve any difficult situations. The reality is that in a society such as ours, high paying jobs often demand someone who can take complicated situations and simplify them into the level that everyone can understand. Therefore, by knowing more maths, students position themselves to the competitive edge they will need to compete for these high paying jobs.
Therefore, when Promasidor over a decade ago choose to embark on maths competition for the young ones it was on the basis that maths is at the bedrock of knowledge. It was no doubt that the CSR initiative it has sustained thus far and still counting will attract commendation from those who believe in knowledge acquisition.
Keith Richards former, Managing Director/CEO, Promasidor Nigeria, said Promasidor will continue to nourish the dreams of millions of young Nigerians as well as continue to inspire brilliancy in schools.
“We are delighted that NASSMAC has continued to impact lives of students across the nation. Our commitment over the years to NASSMAC has seen this nation-building initiative grow from a small school competition in Lagos in 1998 to a national competition with great reputation in the education industry.”
“Every year for us in Promasidor is never the same, and this anniversary year, we celebrate the teachers who have relentlessly stayed committed to the cause of nurturing our kids to academic greatness despite all odds and challenges in the educational system”, Richards added.
He observes that the role of mathematics in any country must be given enough attention. He stressed that it is common place that in building the knowledge base for a sustainable economic, political, social and human development, mathematics do play a central role.
Going down memory lane, Richards recalled that over the years, Promasidor had been relentless in its commitment to this genuine nation-building initiative that had continued to enjoy great enthusiasm from the students, teachers, schools and the education industry.
According to him, their enthusiasm has become an inspiration to ensure that this initiative continues to grow stronger in influence and deliver remarkable impact to the future of Nigeria.
The Promasidor boss quoted Kofi Annan, the past United Nations Secretary General, who once said about Africa that “the future prospects of any nation lies in the present potential of its youth,” remarking that this captures the essence and importance of a competition such as NASSMAC, which is a seed sown with huge promise of a fruitful future harvest for Nigeria.
