Mathematicians are inventors; let's invest in them.
I've had a burning concern for a long while now. It is the decadence that has befallen and is continuously befalling our educational system in my country Nigeria. It is common knowledge that our people and society give more attention to and invest more in entertainment and all sorts more than they do to education and educational programs. Who do you blame? Our government and leaders really want us poor and distracted so that they can continue taking us on a ride. One of such programs is a mathematics competition called COWBELL Paedia.
This is one of the major projects I am most delighted about and appreciate pretty much how much the COWBELL brand has been investing in the encouragement of budding mathematicians in the country. I remember back in my secondary school days, I was opportuned to participate in the national mathematics competition which I dropped out at the first stage ( I was a local champion). The good thing about it then was the fact that it gave me some exposure into other aspects of the subject and was also a challenge for future performance.
On seeing the COWBELL pedia game show which is a mathematics competition amongst pupills of the junior and secondary category all over the nation some years back, I was delighted that children of this generation would at least have some sort of encouragement to advance further in the love for mathematics. But the question is how many of the students see the program. There is most likely a movie showing on African magic or the much more recently embraced zee world or one of these Mexican series showing at same time. There are also the other entertainment shows probably clashing with the time of the show and the child prefers those to the educational show.
The display of speed and accuracy by some of the students is amazing. So, for this reason, I decided to share this clip of the inaugural final of the event which I came across on youtube. The video has a paltry 6,760 views as opposed to some others(entertainment and all) that have stayed that long.
Source
Video looks rather long right,lol. It is an interesting watch from the beginning especially with some inspiring stories from the background of some of the finalists but actual competition starts at
16:30 for the Junior category while the senior category starts at 42:45
Get inspired and please show this to a child for some inspiration.
You can catch up with other episodes here (there are some other preliminaries and semifinal performances that are quite interesting too)
It's really a pity that out education always gets a back seat. When lecturers are striking, it is not to improve our laboratories, it is for their union objectives which borders around their welfare. Rather sad. I commend the show. Whenever I see it I just concede these kids are super smart.
Well said bro. Our country is just a "melodramatic" ministry. Unfortunately, when you check in from another angle, you won't want to blame the lecturers too. They are also comparing themselves to some other sectors who are not doing as much as they do but getting far better pay. All in all, thanks to those doing the right thing. There is this young girl in that video (Ajoke), did you notice the humble background she is from? She was second and took home 500k . For me, that is a step in the right direction for motivation for a child doing fine academically. Although one would expect that probably an another organisation could partner with cowbell and offer sponsorship to these young lads. There a dozens of such girls outside who are not fortunate to get such opportunity.
I have believed many times
But it was no different
You think it's easy that I was wrong
Until I thought
This self is meaningless in your eyes
When you dark night I'm your star
I light up you with my love
So you can love love
And love love
Sincerely you love your beloved
Do not hate to say love
Do not be mad say dear
Do not lie to the heart
If you really like it
Do not you feel far away
When you're close to me
Do not you think of love
Easy come Easy Go
This is really insightful from you. We all look forward to participating in this kind of competition back then in my secondary school days. Nowadays, most students would prefer to get entertained than read. May God help our generation.
As I said in the article, will you blame them ? Government and private sector aand our private individuals like have not helped us, we need to help ourselves. If I may ask, what was done in big brother naija ? What did the participants go home with ? Indians populate a large mass of computer programmers in Nigeria. They are developing their healthcare too. I wonder what we can boast of other than the
When I look at the present set of half baked graduates coming our from our universities yearly, I keep crying for my unborn children who will eventually be learn under them. Our government is not helping in this regard. Kudos to Cowbell brand for the efforts so far.
well said bro. Thanks for stopping by.
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