By Dayo Adesulu

When in 1999 the Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC) began, little did anybody know that it would soon become a household name in Nigeria. Contrary to the expectation of many that the concept would, before long, fade with the faint interest of an average student in mathematics, the competition sooner than later became the bride in the heart of the target audience that is annually looked forward to.

The competition, organised by Promasidor Nigeria Limited for students in both junior and senior secondary schools as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is meant to promote and encourage students to offer mathematics as a subject and to also remove the phobia students have for the subject.

Performance of students

The company therefore, came up with the idea to stem the poor performance of students hitherto noticed in mathematics examinations in the country.

To say the annual contest has recorded success year –in, year-out is repeating the obvious. Not only do students now look forward to NASSMAC every year, even their mathematics teachers and schools alike are pleased.

The prize of emerging successful in the highly rated competition is today enjoyed by the winning students as well as their respective mathematics tutors and schools. As a result of this, the benefits accruable in the competition obviously spur the stakeholders mentioned above to prepare adequately even before entering for the competition.

The experience of Akindele Nurein Oyetobi of Iganmode Grammar School, Ota Ogun State, the winner of Cowbell NASSMAC in 2011, was a good testimony for this. When the competition began that year, little did the 16-year old son of a trader know that he will emerge successful.

Oyetobi, who was well-prepared for the competition and from a public school, said he put in his best because he knew the kind of schools he would face during the competition. Words, therefore, could not express how he felt when his name was announced as the winner out of the over 34,000 students that participated in the competition.

The winner of 2014 edition, senior category, Akintokun Adegboyega, a 13-year old student of Ota Total Academy, corroborated this. Despite the fact that Adegboyega is a mathematics genius, who had won multiple awards before the last NASSMAC award in the subject many students dread, he felt so excited to win.

His words: “I really prepared for the contest, but the coast was not clear over who would be the outstanding winner. I was therefore full of expectation. Immediately I emerged the winner for my state, Ogun State, at the first stage final examinations, I became apprehensive of what would be the final outcome of the competition. In fact, I explored every available opportunity to ensure no stone was left unturned as regards preparations for the final stage.”

Success story

The success story of the Cowbell NASSMAC has been embraced not only by students; their schools too regard it as an honour when the winning students come from them.Ota Total Academy in Ogun State is one of such schools. The Academy has always motivated its students to participate in the annual competition; as it perceives every trophy won by students as a booster to its silhouette.

Adegboyega says: “My school has always encouraged us (students) to participate in awards like this and the school usually celebrates every winner. This is because the management usually counts every award won by its students as an honour to the school itself.

“For instance, when I won the award in 2012, the school gave me full scholarship apart from the fact that they also celebrated the award by uploading it on the school’s website. This year’s is not an exception. The school encourages us (students) and our teachers.”

From small humble beginning in year 2001, NASSMAC has grown into a credible and successful examination that all Nigerian secondary schools, teachers and students alike want to associate and identify with.

Today, NASSMAC is one of the most credible examinations in Nigeria. It might interest anybody to know that NASSMAC question papers have never leaked; an achievement that has made the target audience trust the body of examiners annually used for grading the results.  The Managing Director of Promasidor, Olivier Thiry, was proud of this achievement; as the menace of examination malpractice is the order of the day with many examinations.

His words: “We are very proud of this feat and we pledge to sustain it. Our vision is to give all eligible Nigerian children the opportunity to participate in the competition and by so doing, improve their performance in mathematics.”