A total of 108 students (54 junior and 54 senior secondary school pupils) in Nigeria out of about 34,000 that sat for this year’s edition of Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC) across the country have been shortlisted for the second stage that will start on TV stations in Nigeria this weekend.
Head of Marketing, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, makers of Cowbell Milk, and sponsor of the competition, Mr. Festus Tettey, disclosed this at the unveiling of CowbellPedia to the Media in Lagos on Thursday, August 6, 2015.
He explained that 54 of the students qualified from the JSS3 students that participated in the first stage examination held earlier in the year. Also, 54 students qualified from the senior category.
On the modality used before arriving at 54 successful students for each category, Tettey said based on the scores earned from the exams, the top 20 students from around the country were picked, while the remaining 34 were representatives from the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Unlike before, Tettey said there is improvement on the second stage of the competition this year, as the 2015 edition marks the 15th yearly sponsorship of NASSMAC by Cowbell.
To commemorate this feat, he stated, the second stage has been changed to an interactive quiz competition known as Cowbellpedia, which is endorsed by National Examinations Council (NECO).
He disclosed that the quiz competition, which will be aired on 14 TV stations across the country, will be on the Math topics: Number and Numeration; Algebra; Geometry and Measuration; Statistics and Probability; Trigonometry as well as Introduction to Calculus all based on the current secondary school curriculum in Nigeria.
According to him, the television stations that will air the Cowbellpedia Competition are: AIT Network, TVC Lagos, NTA Channel 10 Lagos, MITV, OSRC, NTA Ibadan, NTA Port Harcourt, ABS Onitsha, NTA Enugu, ITV Benin, NTA Kaduna, STV Jos and Niger TV Minna.
Also, Tettey said that there is significant increase in prize money for the students and their teachers this year.
The best students in both categories will receive N750,000 each, while the first and second runners–up will smile home with N500,000 and N250,000 in that order.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of Promasidor, Mr Olivier Thiry, said this new innovation sits at the core of what Promasidor stands for.
His words: “Innovation drives the way we think, act and interact with our consumers and customers.” In view of this, he said for over 15 years now, Promasidor is committed to the development and nurturing of mathematics in Nigeria through the platform of NASSMAC, adding that it is time to give it a new creative twist.
His words: “Today, this new and value-adding direction takes our initiative to another height in our pursuit to nurture great innovators – engineers and scientists for tomorrow. Mathematics is particularly unique as it is the bedrock upon which science and technology is built. The Cowbellpedia TV Quiz Competition is designed to reward and celebrate excellence in the subject area of Mathematics.
He therefore expressed optimism that Cowbellpedia will increase and heighten the interest of more Nigerian youth in the study of mathematics and in doing so, nurture great future inventors.
Click this link to watch how to play cowbellpedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RODKH8lXocc
