Teen develops math competition to make learning fun

Efforts are being made to create an interest in math with the aim of making it fun. On Thursday, the New Amsterdam Town Council hosted a Mathematics competition for primary schools within the township as part of a series of events to celebrate Town Day.
The inaugural Math Olympia was intended to test the aptitude of students in Grade Five.
Even though it was held under the Town Day umbrella, it was the brainchild of 16-year-old Quacy Issacs Jr, who on Wednesday copped the best graduating student’s prize for mathematics at President’s College.
Issacs Jr, who also won awards for being the best graduating student in Information Technology (IT), Science, and Natural Science also walked away with the Principal’s Award.
He was happy to see the efforts students made in answering questions during the competition. “Hopefully this event can continue again and again…” he said.
His father, Quacy Issacs Snr, is hopeful that this initiative forms a part of the list of events to celebrate Town Day while noting that he is proud of his son’s idea.
“For all the years, most of the focus has been on English, so we decided to try math. Then my son being a math student who excelled at CSEC, decided that we were going to have a Math Olympia.”
The Councillor added that persons seldomly put much emphasis on the subject because it is perceived to be difficult.
“Everybody says math is hard so they focus on other subject areas. So, the idea was to encourage students and prove that math is not as difficult as some may presume.”
However, at the end of the competition, Learners Academy walked away with the winning trophy ahead of Alleyne’s Academy. St Aloysius Primary School was awarded the third-place trophy.
A total of six schools participated in the event which was divided into three segments – knowledge, comprehension, and application. The top performer was Nkosana Smith of Learners Academy.