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CLOSING CEREMONY - NATIONAL COMPETITION FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (NAMCUS)

The closing ceremony for the national competition for university students (NAMCUS) 2010 held on the 11th of February 2010. The competition which started on the 7th February ended with the closing ceremony.

The ceremony which started at about 4:30 pm began with prayers from a Christian and Muslim. The PRO of the National Mathematical s Centre, Mr. Njoku compered the occasion, began by introducing the Chairman of the occasion Prof. S. O. Ale, the Director General of the centre. Other dignitaries were then introduced, this included Prof. P. Onumanyi, the Deputy Director General of the Centre, Prof A. R. T. Solarin Dean School Mathematical Sciences and also the Coordinator of the Competition, Mr. Ezekpeasu Acting Bursar, and Prof. Adeniran, Dean School of Mathematics Education.

The Chairman of the occasion gave his opening address in which he welcomed all that were present for the occasion. He then commended the students for being patient and enduring all conditions during their stay on the campus. He remarked that mathematicians were generally coolheaded and serious minded people. The chairman’s vision was for Nigeria to participate in global mathematics competition. A nation he said was known by their brain power. He cited the example of china which was rising fast because of what they could produce. He stated that the National Mathematical Centre had introduced the Olympiads competitions because Science and Technology was what made a nation improve and Mathematics is the head of all sciences.

The Chairman then congratulated the students and lecturers that were present for the competition because not every university that had the privilege. He further stated that in the international competitions Nigeria was not yet among the first 20, and also not among the last 20. He added that he was sad during the last international Mathematics Olympiad because Nigeria did not receive any medal. This he said was a result of student not being grounded in mathematics. The desire of the Centre was to have Nigerian students grounded in Mathematical Sciences right from their foundation. His desire was for Nigeria to be among the 1st 20 countries in the world. In conclusion he thanked the students and their lecturers for coming and encouraged the students to do better next year.

The coordinator of the event, Prof. A. R. T. Solarin also gave his remarks. He said that at the beginning of the competition 15 universities were present. 13 universities came with students and 1 university came as observers. 54 students wrote the exams but 14 were not considered because the jury found irregularities. In the end, the completion was restricted to 40 students. He further stated that as a rule 50% of contestants were to be given medals. This meant that 20 students would be given medals.

Three (3) students got gold medals, six (6) got silver. Fourteen (14) students got bronze medals instead of eleven (11) because 3 students tied in one position. All students that participated would be given certificates of participation. The lecturers that came with students would be given certificate of attendance.

The Coordinator after his speech called on the Chairman of the Ceremony, Prof. S. O. Ale to present the medals to the students.

The vote of thanks was given by the Deputy Director of the Centre, Prof. P. Onumanyi. He thanked the Director General of the Centre for his continuous support; he also thanked the Coordinator of the competition, Prof. A. R. T. Solarin for his efforts especially for taking time took to set the questions. He then thanked all the especially the kitchen staff for their supported. He encouraged Heads of Departments of universities to ensure their students of come for the next competition.

The ceremony ended with the closing prayers.

YOUNG AFRICAN MEDAL AWARDS IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

The event started at 4pm with the National Anthem and opening prayers. This was followed by the introduction of the Management staff of the National Mathematical Centre. Namely The Director General , Prof. S. O. Ale, the Deputy Director General , Prof Onumaiyi, the Registrar NMC, Mr. C. O. Adeyemo, The Acting Librarian NMC, Mrs. C. Aje, Dean School of Mathematical Sciences NMC Prof. A.R.T. Solarin, Acting Dean School of Theoretical Physics Associate Prof. B.O. Oyelami, Resident Consultant Mathematical Improvement Program, Prof. A. O. Adetula. The Resource Persons /Guest Speakers and Workshop Participants were also introduced.

Next Prof Ihsen Yenghi was invited to present his medal talk/lecture. After that, the convener of the award, Prof. A. R. T. Solarin gave a brief history of the how the award came into being. The first edition of the award took place in Nigeria and was hosted by the University Of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB) where six (6) promising young African Mathematicians were awarded. He went further to inform the audience that for one to qualify for the award, the nominee must be nominated by six (6) out of ten committee members based on their paper presentations that had international acceptance. He went on to say he was a fulfilled man because in one way or the other he has had personal contact with the awardees. He was either a supervisor or lecturer at undergraduate or post graduate level or as mentor to them.

The highlight of the occasion was the presentation of the awardees who were two in number. The first was Dr. Uchechukwu Enyim Vincent, a staff of Olabisi Onubanjo University, Assistant Lecturer in Tai Solarin University. The second was Prof Ihysen Yengi from the University of Tunisia, whose works had been published in top leading journal of Algebra. He is now into Computer Algebra the latest in the field.
The two awardees were presented by Prof. Solarin who gave a brief citation on each of them. The D. G. Of the Centre Prof. Ale who also is Vice President of the African Mathematical Union on behalf of the African Mathematical Union (AMU) presented a medal, a plaque and a cash award of 1000(USD) each to both awardees.

The D. G in his address apologised on behalf of the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu who was unavoidably absent due to tight officially schedules. He promise to make sure the Minister was present in the next meeting. He welcomed the Resource Persons/Speakers and Participants to Centre and Nigeria. He also thanked the members of the award committee for their tireless efforts and all others that contributed to the success of the workshop. He used the occasion to intimate the audience on the vision of the Centre. He gave a summary of the Program departments, the facilities and the various strategies and approaches the Centre was adopting to achieve her goals. He also enjoined the two awardees to see the award as a challenge and not to rest on their oars. He looked forward to their lectures in the future.
The ceremony ended at about 5:30pm.

JDP MATRICULATION 2008/2009

The Joint Degree Program of the National Mathematical Centre on the 9th of December, 2009 held its third matriculation ceremony. Fifty five (55) students matriculated. Forty Five (45) of the students registered for MSc. Financial Mathematics while Ten (10) students registered for PGD Financial Mathematics. The 2008/2009 Matriculation ceremony had in attendance the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof. J. S. A. Adelabu, The Director General of the NMC, Prof. S. O. Ale, the Librarian of the University of Abuja, The Deputy Director General of NMC and Dean Joint Degree Program (JDP), Prof Onumaiyi, the Registrar NMC, Mr. C. O. Adeyemo, The Acting Librarian NMC, Mrs. C. Aje, Dean School of Mathematical Sciences NMC ,Prof. A. R. T. Solarin, Acting Dean School of Theoretical Physics Associate Prof. B. O. Oyelami, Resident Consultant Mathematical Improvement Program, Prof. A. O. Adetula, members of staff of NMC and gentlemen of the press. The ceremony started at 3.42pm began with a procession of the matriculating students led by the Registrar of the Centre, Mr. C. O. Adeyemo, into the Auditorium. After that the opening prayers were made by a Muslim and a Christian. The 2008/2009 matriculation ceremony was declared open by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof Adelabu. The Director General of the National Mathematical Centre gave the Opening Address. From his speech he said that the Centre received 1,000 application but only 52 were offered provisional admission to pursue the Masters programme in Financial Mathematics and 12 Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Mathematics. He encouraged the students to take their studies seriously. The D.G. also stated that Financial Mathematics was offered by very few universities in the world and so it was necessary for those universities to expose the students to adequate training. He ended his address encouraging the students to be very useful and positive citizens of the nations. After his speech the Dean, Joint Degree Program, Prof Onumaiyi presented the matriculating students to the V.C. of the University of Abuja, Prof Adelabu, who read to them the matriculation oath. In his short address he said he shared the vision of the D. G. and had always seen himself as part of the Centre. He further stated that he will always encourage a cordial relationship between the University of Abuja and the Centre. Finally he encouraged the students to be ambassadors of the Mathematical Centre. The ceremony was declared closed by Prof Adelabu at 4.18pm. NMC intoduces Mental Arithmetic
The National Mathematical Centre is pleased to introduce Mental Arithmetic to our educational system. In partnership with Adroit Resources Development Ltd and working with CMA pioneered by Tai Chiang Ching from Taiwan has organised a one month training programme. This pilot programme began on the 19th of October and ended on the 16th of November.
66 pupils of different age groups and classes were drawn from different part of the country as participants for the training programme. Their performance has been amazing. Some benefits of the programme include:
(i) Enhancement of mathematical skills and intelligence.
(ii) Sharpening the power of focus, concentration and memory.
(iii) Enhancing self confidence, thinking skills and creativity.
(iv) Stimulating audio visual and other kinaesthetic senses.
(v) Boosting imaginative powers and response/reflexes.
(vi) Ensuring pupils balanced development with high IQ/EQ.

All the children along with their teachers were hosted at the National Mathematical Centre. This was not an easy feat to accomplish but the task was well handled by all the staff in the Hostel and Catering Services unit. They worked tirelessly round the clock to provide for their guests.

NMC Retrains 100 Yobe State Teacher

One of the primary responsibilities of the centre is the improvement of the teaching and learning of the Mathematics Sciences at all levels. This is predicated on the fact that the teacher and learning of the Mathematical Sciences in the present time needs much attention: One major strategy to improve the teacher effectiveness in the classroom is the retraining of the teachers. This is precisely what the Centre has carried out with Yobe State Government retraining One hundred Mathematics and Science teachers of Secondary Schools that cut across the State. This training took place between March 9th – April 9th, 2008. It included an intensive Computer training (two hours every day). The Centre believes that all teachers must be computer literate.

Mathematical centre will produce great scientists in years — Prof Sam Ale

Recently, the National Mathematical Centre won a gold medal at the Pan-African maths contest for the first time.
we hosted the Pan-African mathematics Olympiad and this is the 17th edition, and the international observers adjudged it to be the most well organised Olympiad ever; the best, and they suggested to me that if we desired to host the international Olympiad we will get their support and in fact they encouraged us to do so. So by the grace of God we would be hoping that Nigeria will host the rest of the world. Of course there are countries already lined up to 2012, so now I am going to make Nigeria line up as well, let’s say 2013 or 2014 we should be hosting the whole world by what we have done in Pan-African Olympiad and also by taking the 1st position. Of course Nigeria is rated very high, and of course Abuja is considered a very nice, good place for such an international event.
Winning awards is a thing of pride for the country, but of what use when the scientists produced can not help fix problems that require scientific expertise, for example the power sector.
You see at one time for four consecutive years, the Nobel Prize winners in Economics were mathematicians. Mathematicians who later went into economics and they won the Nobel Prize. If you want to produce Nobel prize winners in Nigeria, what the National Mathematical Centre is doing in bringing out this young ones; giving them the best of training ever. Because if you see the kind of questions and problems they were given to solve, in fact, final year undergraduate students could not be able to solve them, so they have already started doing all these. These are secondary school students in their final year in secondary school.
Either in SSS 1, SSS 2 and SS3. They compete in such difficult problems in Mathematics and they are able to solve them, and if you match them with undergraduate students; I think they are better, right from this their youth. Now you see our end result is to see that we produce Nobel Prize winners in the future or scientists of great repute in different areas of endeavour.
We want to be producing the Albert Einsteins, the Isaac Newtons and of course Chike Obi who is in Nigeria , but we have not been able to produce Nobel Prize winners in science and technology here in Nigeria . But with what we are doing now, in some years to come you are going to see the results, because these are the people who are going to research areas, and in every area they go, you are going to see a break-through.

Nigeria: FG Earmarks N4bn for Science Education

The Federal Government has deployed the sum of N4 billion towards improving the capacity of teachers and pupils, in the teaching and learning of the three core science subjects, namely Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology at the secondary school level.

Under the special scheme tagged Mathematics Improvement Training Programme, the Federal Ministry of Education, through the National Mathematical Centre, will train teachers in the designated courses for a period of two to three years, while the teachers will in turn return to their respective schools to impart the knowledge gained. Fifty schools in each state of the federation will benefit from the scheme

In the pilot scheme, the Director General said, the Katsina State Government invested N10 million in building the capacity of teaching and learning Mathematics among teachers and pupils in seven schools over a period of two years.This investment, resulted in a significant improvement in the performance of students in Mathematics with the percentage of students passing Mathematics at the school certificate level leaping from a dismal five per cent to 90 per cent in Katsina State.

He explained that PAMO was one of the numerous efforts by the Federal Government to encourage participation of young Nigerians in competitive examinations in Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, so as to stimulate enthusiasm for the physical sciences in talented Nigerian scholars.

He also said, science and technology has become the basic tools for the development of modern society and a measure of the level of development, adding that mathematics remained the bedrock on which scientific and technological development can be built. He observed that Nigeria was very backward in the sciences and needed special programmes to reverse the trend

NMC will take Nigerian students to world class contests

In its efforts to project the image of Nigeria as not only the most populous country in African continent but as well as the most intellectually advanced, the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) has perfected all arrangements to send Nigerian students to different countries of the world where they will compete with students from other parts of the world.
Beginning from July this year, the centre will take Nigerian students to Vietnam for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) while other students will go to Iran for the Physics Olympiad.
The NMC is also to fly some brilliant Nigerian students to Russia for the Chemistry Olympiad with other outstanding students going to Ghana for the Biology Olympiad.
Based on the sterling performances of young Nigerians at both the 2006 and 2007 editions of the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad organised by the African Mathematical Union (AMU) during which the country won silver and gold medals respectively,  the Director General said that the NMC has since then received invitations from all over the world, asking the country to send representatives for these intellectual competitions. The 2007 edition was hosted by the NMC in Abuja last month.
According to  the Director General, Nigeria was nowhere to be found in these international competitions but now, the country is making waves, adding that nothing gladdens his heart than to see the flag of Nigeria flying among the comity of nations.
He says: “Raising the flag of Nigeria whenever these world bodies gather gives me joy and I feel proud. What we are doing at the centre is to make sure that Nigeria remains unbeaten by other nations in the area of Mathematical sciences. These competitions are no longer strange to our students. They can now go to any part of the world confidently as they know that they are intellectually capable.”
NMC under  our  Director General has been concentrating efforts on popularising science and Mathematics in the country. The centre,  started off by taking measures aimed at demystifying the teaching and learning of Mathematics in primary and secondary schools in the country.
To achieve this goal, the NMC produced some basic Mathematics textbooks and kits for primary and secondary schools. The books were designed to re-awaken and reactivate the Mathematics potential of these students.
 These unique strategies which NMC has been adopting in making the subject friendly: “We try to demystify the fear which students have for Mathematics. We try to make it less abstract. We approach its teaching practically and show students, objects like a triangle. We show them the usefulness and introduce them to mathematical games. They will be playing games and will be learning about Mathematics at the same time.”
Just as the centre has been providing students and teachers with materials that will aid the learning and teaching of Mathematics, it has also put in place a joint-degree programme in Financial Mathematics, a postgraduate degree programme which it is running in conjunction with the University of Abuja.
The programme, which commenced from March this year, is having about 50 students on its enrolment. The purpose of the programme is to train a very high level manpower in mathematical sciences.
Speaking on the usefulness of this postgraduate degree programme,  the Director General said: “In the next ten years, universities will not lack teachers in the mathematical sciences because we are going to put different universities together and train en-masse post-graduate programme in the centre. It is a great beginning because no single university has had up to 50 post-graduates in a mathematical programme before. Infact, by next year, the figure will be increasing to 200. With our direction, Nigeria stands to gain a lot because we have taken note of the lack of teachers in secondary schools and higher institutions.”
 The Director General, however, wants government as well as corporate bodies to pay special attention to the improvement of science and Mathematics at all levels, adding that special grant should be given to universities and colleges of education which will empower them to improve the production and training of Mathematics and science teachers.

 

PROFESSOR SAM ALE, OFR, mni RE-APPOINTED AS THE DIRECTOR GENERAL

Professor Sam Ale, OFR, mni has been re­ appointed for a 2nd term of five years as the Director General and Chief Executive of the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja by Mr. President. The re-appointment was based on the excellent report on him by the Minister of Education wherein Professor Ale was commended for contributing immensely to the transformation of the Mathematical Science and Mathematical Sciences Education in Nigeria and other areas of human endeavour; for introducing new methods for demystifying mathematics as well as making mathematics simple, real and scintillating to pupils and students and for promoting the image of Nigeria in Mathematical Sciences internationally, especially in the scientific activities in the International Mathematics and Sciences Olympiads. It will also be recalled that Nigeria's contingent, through the National Mathematical Centre, produced Africa's best pupil mathematician in the just concluded 2007 Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (P AMO) held in Abuja; Prof. Ale, has prudently managed the lean financial resources of the Centre and has also initiated many revenue generating programmes and activities including an Endowment Fund, which has invariably improved the internal revenue base of the Centre. Indeed, his policy direction and research stimulation have provided teaching modules, textbooks, mathematical games, and kits for the Universal Basic Education Programme. We pray that God Almighty will give Professor Sam Ale, OFR, mni the wisdom, strength and understand to lead the Centre to the Promised Land. On behalf of the Council, the Management and staff of the National Mathematical Centre, we congratulate the Director General for his re-appoinent and wish him more successes in the years ahead.