News Releases

Releases for the public and media announcing new events, people, projects, or publications at NMC.

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.