IGANMODE Grammar School, Ota, Ogun State has done it again. For a record sixth time, it has emerged the overall champion of the Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC). But despite this feat, rare among public secondary schools across the country, the school has suffered neglect by its proprietor, the Ogun State government.At the colourful award ceremony, held at the Transcorp Hilton hotel, Abuja recently, Master Akindele Oyedele, an SS2 student of the school clinched the first position. A female student, Miss Adegbohungbe Lois from Reality High School, Ilesa, Osun state emerged second with 83 per cent, while Master Obasi Nnamdi Peter from the University of Nigeria Secondary School, Enugu, placed third with 81 per cent.In the junior category, 13-year-old Master Iyoha Omonzokpia of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja came first with a total score of 93 per cent; Omojola Samuel of Reality High School, Oromu, Osun state came second place with 91per cent while the third position went to14 year-old Master Amulah Caleb, who scored 89 per cent.However, Oyedele, who scored a total of 94 points in both the objective and theory segments, is disappointed that a school that had brought so much fame and recognition to Ogun state and the country as a whole, lacks even the basic infrastructure, necessary to promote effective teaching and learning.Despite the awards, money, gifts and fame that accrued to him and his school, Oyedele said:'I feel very sad whenever I see the condition of my school.There are no windows, no doors and very little furniture in the classrooms. My school is not very good in terms of infrastructure, so I want to appeal to the state government that there should be improvement in teachers' welfare, classrooms and the school environment.'Oyedele, who wants to study Mechanical Engineering, said being a winner has not only brought him fortune but is also a motivation to work harder. He attributed his success to God and his teacher, Mr Hakeem Atinsola, who coached him personally for the competition. 'I want to thank my teacher a million times for his commitment and dedication,' he said. 'Without him and God nothing would have been possible. My advice to other students is that they should work hard. You cannot excel in something you hate, so the first step to understanding mathematics is to try and like the subject.'With very few state-owned public school pupils getting to the finalsof the competition, now in its 13th edition, Oyedele's teacher, Atinsola, who had single handedly coached all the winners in the past editions, was thrilled that all his effortspaid again.His words: 'I feel happy and even God himself is happy because I put him first in everything I do. In both the junior and senior categories, we have won six times. But the interesting part of the story is that we have won the mathematics competition three consecutive times in the senior category and no state has ever done that.'According to him, the magic 'is God' in addition to his strategy of coaching his students one year ahead of the commencement of the competition. 'We start coaching the students right from the third term holiday in July,' he said. 'We already have students we are coaching for next year's competition and I am very confident that my star student would even be better than the current champion.'The mathematics teacher however noted that the school's success in the competition could not, in any way, be attributed to the support or contribution of the Ogun state government as the school has hardly benefitted from current education reforms going on within the state.He said: 'In my school, we have a lot of mathematics teachers. The government is trying for the students. But so far, there is nothing coming in for the teachers and that is why they are shying away from going the extra mile for the students.' He said money was never his passion for coaching his students. 'I am taking it (competition) as a challenge and money is not everything,' he affirmed. 'It is my interest that is making these students to shine. If I decide today not to show interest in coaching the students, their performance would go down.'He disclosed that school currently caters for a student population of over 4000 in the senior school and over 6000 in the junior school. The senior school has about 90 teachers while that of the junior school has more than 120.Despite being in a rural area, he noted that the environment has not affected the performance of our students. 'The school is over 50 years old, having been established in 1960,' he revealed, 'but the condition of the school notwithstanding, our success has to do with our unique strategy in the teaching of mathematics'.He continued: 'For students to be successful in mathematics, there are lots of things that should be done. The government, parents, the school, students including the teachers must all be involved. The role of the teachers, basically, is to always encourage the student. Some of the very brilliant students come from poor families, who can hardly afford to buy textbooks for them. Teachers must try and simplify mathematics by solving examples, such that if you want to give them exercises, such exercises should be related to the examples given to the students and this is something most teachers hardly do.'According to him, Iganmode's prowess is not only related to the cowbell mathematics competition. 'The 2011 Cowbell mathematics champion won the overall best student's award in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the state and even followed the wife of the governor to London. Even in the Olympiad, the only female student in the whole of Nigeria and the only public school in the competition happens to be from my school,' he stated.In his address, the Chief Executive Officer of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Mr Keith Richards explained the company's decision to sustain the sponsorship of the competition for the past 13 years was borne out of the need to re-awaken the interest in mathematics amongst secondary school students as a road map to nation building.He announced that from a humble beginning, the competition has grown from being organized in 80 examination centres in 2001 to 200 centres in 2013 and from over 15,000 students in 2001 to about 30,000 students in 2013.He said: 'NASSMAC is one of the most credible examinations in Nigeria. It has kept its integrity and intensity to date. We have not hada single leakage of question papers since inception and the participating schools completely trust our body of examiners who are responsible for grading the results and we are indeed proud of this feat'.He also commended the 20 finalists for exhibiting exceptional aptitude for mathematics describing them as Cowbell NASSMAC Ambassadors.According to him, the current credit pass rates for Mathematics in WAEC and NECO pose a huge challenge not only for the teachers, schools and relevant government agencies, but also to all parents and other stakeholders.'Promasidor sees this, not only as a fight to protect our future as individuals, but also as a fight for the collective future of our beloved country, Nigeria. With the current growth in our economy, we urgently need to develop the right human resource capability to drive, support, sustain and surpass our vision,' he said.Director-General, National Mathematical Centre, Prof Adewale Solarin, said the final 10 pupils in the senior and junior categories would get automatic invitations to the centre's annual training camp, for the final selection of the Nigerian team for the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO) and the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).Representing the Minister of Education, Prof Ruquayyatu Rufai, the Coordinator, International Mathematics Competition in Africa at the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr Abass Adedibu commended Promasidor for organizing the competition at various levels to enable more students participate.
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