Tongaat tops in maths

Tongaat Secondary School was honoured at the South African Maths Foundation’s annual awards ceremony held in Benoni on October 12.
The school received an award for being the best performing previously disadvantaged school in the country in the 2013 Harmony Gold Maths Olympiad.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga who presented the award to the principal, Rajen Singh said she was proud that an ordinary public school was able to compete and perform at the highest level among the best private and ex-model C schools throughout Southern Africa.
Singh said he was particularly proud of grade 11 pupil, Lushen Moodly who participated in the final round of the Olympiad comprising of the top 100 learners after 81 000 entries in the first round. He emerged runner up to the top 10 medallists in the Olympiad.
“We were informed a month ago that Moodly had been selected into the senior KwaZulu Natal inter-provincial mathematics Olympiad team,” said Singh.
Tongaat Secondary also received a certificate of recognition for participating for 10 consecutive years in the S.A. Maths Olympiad.
Singh said the latest award confirmed the calibre of maths pupils at his school and he was proud of both students and staff for their extra effort that they put into such programmes.
He also acknowledged the support of their partners in education, especially the Epoch and Optima Trust Fund which has challenged the school to participate in the maths competitions.