Maths top achievers rewarded
The top 13 pupils won a two-day trip to Hluhluwe and Saint Lucia, including Advantage Tour boat rides and game drives.
NINETY nine Grade 7 pupils, who participated in the Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education (CASME) MySchool RISO Mathematics Olympiad, received their certificates. The top 13 pupils won a two-day trip to Hluhluwe and Saint Lucia, including Advantage Tour boat rides and game drives.
The olympiad was conceptualised and implemented by CASME, the Department of Education Pinetown District and The South African Schools’ Magazine and targeted 6500 learners from 109 under-resourced schools in the Pinetown District.
According to GET Mathematics subject advisor in the district Nozipho Dlamini, in reviewing the performance of learners in the Annual National Assessments the district’s subject advisors identified schools that were underperforming.
Rural and township schools were targeted specifically and the project designed to support quality teaching and learning in this context.
“The Olympiad Project will assist us in improving learner performance specifically in Mathematics. Our target of at least a 60% pass by 2014 in the National Assessments is achievable with the support of this type of initiative,” she said.
The Olympiad project included four key activities, including teachers’ workshops to identify teaching challenges.
Phase one of the Olympiad within the school space with a question paper being provided by CASME; phase two where learners who were chosen from phase one competed at two central venues; and finally the awards ceremony to acknowledge top achieving learners, teachers and schools.
Jubilee Primary School, whose Grade 7 learner Siyabonga Tembe came first in the Olympiad, was happy to receive a RISOLAR printing system (RISOLAR KZ), a unique system that includes a high-speed duplicator printing machine, together with a battery and solar kit. This means the school will be able to use the machine anywhere, anytime, utilizing only the power of the sun.
“RISO’s core business has always been education. Getting involved in the Mathematics Olympiad was the ideal opportunity for us to give something back.
“We understand the importance of supporting both the teaching and learning of Mathematics. This Olympiad provided an opportunity to help teachers improve their skills, while at the same time creating excitement about Mathematics amongst learners,” said Anderson.
Pieter Twine, MySchool General Manager.
“Working with RISO enabled us to help CASME roll-out the Olympiad and award the top performers.We believe that rolling out the Olympiad by starting with a teacher’s workshop is what sets us apart.
Teachers were able to apply the lessons to their teaching and identify their own areas of improvement through the analysis of learner performance in the Olympiad,” he said.
Henre Benson from CASME said, “None of this would have been possible without the support of our sponsors, MySchool and RISO, our media partner The South African Schools’ Magazine who helped to source funding, and of course the Department of Education who backed the project and motivated its teachers to participate fully”