By Dapo Akinrefon

The Nigerian Tulip International College, NTIC, on Saturday, awarded finalists of its 21st Annual National Mathematics Competition, ANMC, with scholarships and cash prizes.

The ANMC is the largest and yearly competition, organised for math enthusiasts in Primary 5, Primary 6, and JSS 3 by NTIC in collaboration with the National Mathematics Centre, NMC.

It recognises the achievements of outstanding young mathematicians with the ultimate goal to produce remarkable students that would lead to changes in the inventions that would shape the future of science in Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large.
This year, more than 7,500 students participated in the first round across various states while twenty-eight won scholarships and other prizes.

20 students from Primary 5 and 6 and 8 students from JSS3 were awarded a 100% tuition fee scholarship plus cash prizes and academic equipment.

Speaking during the prize-giving and award ceremony in Abuja, the Managing Director of NTIC, Fevzullah Bilgin said the school had been organising ANMC for the past 21 years.

Bilgin said the annual competition aims to harness the outstanding minds of young mathematicians by sharpening their rough edges and grooming them to become strong and proficient in science.

He said: “The ANMC has been in operation since 2003. It is solely put together by NTIC in collaboration with the NMC to harness outstanding young mathematics minds, sharpen their rough edges and groom them to become strong and proficient in sciences.

“I must say that there have been a lot of success stories, especially the ones from the Maths competition; ANMC. So those participants came to NTIC and they have become the representatives of Nigeria in international competitions. They received their special training from our trainers at the school.

“Many of our students have won medals in international competitions. NTIC has been a very successful school collecting these medals and achievements.

“Some of our students who were on scholarship on mathematics competitions, went to very successful top universities in the world and they became very successful in those universities.

“NTIC will always be committed to organizing the annual mathematics competition every year to further energize students’ love for mathematics and other science-related subjects. This will, in turn, aid the building students who will be nation builders.”

Earlier, the ANMC Coordinator, Erdal Yilmaz said: “Currently, 140 students are benefiting from the NTIC scholarship scheme and we spend more than N500 million annually for the awardees.

“With ANMC, we have been able to awaken the mathematics potentials in students and have been of great help in leveraging the students’ functionality in the science-oriented area.”

On his part, the Director/Chief Executive of NMC, Prof. Promise Mebine urged relevant stakeholders to collaborate with the centre “just as NTIC is doing.”
Mebine said: “We call on private individuals, well meaning Nigerians, private companies, national companies, multinational companies to collaborate with the NMC for the betterment of mathematics in the country.”

Favour Nse, Director, Department of Quality Assurance (DQA), Education Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), said: “The department will continue to partner with agencies such as the NMC, especially in the aspect of training and retraining of basic and senior secondary education teachers.”

Meanwhile, Kaosisochukwu Enebe of NTIC Abuja boys, who emerged overall best for the junior category won N150,000 and a scholarship waiver.

Famiroju Samuel Olamide from Spring of Life, Enugu, who was also declared winner of the primary category got N150,000 and a scholarship waiver.

The top 20 positions were awarded cash prizes that ranged from N10,000 to N200,000 for both the Primary category and JSS 3 category.

Their maths teachers were not left out as they too received cash prizes of up to N100,000.

Participating schools were also rewarded with gifts that ranged from giant-size photocopiers to desktop computers and printers.