School pupils were excited to receive a cheque for R15 000 and certificates for winning a maths competition.
Nolungile Primary School pupils surprised everyone, perhaps even themselves, when they won an online maths competition, walking away with R15 000 cash prize.
In the Matific Maths Olympiad, run by Standard Bank in partnership with Matific South Africa, Nolungile competed against 138 schools across the country.
To take part, the pupils had to have access to computers or laptops which could connect to the internet, and had to commit to participating for a full week.
Last Friday there were scenes of excitement when the school received the ceremonial cheque.
At the handover, Standard Bank’s head of the education sector, Ben Pretorious, said the competition sought to equip children with the skills they needed to become leaders.
He added that he believed the competition was one way they could encourage pupils to develop a love of maths and science.
“The cash prize might be a big number for many people but for me the most important thing was to get the school involved in this programme.
“I was telling the principal that I can't remember whether I could count in Grade 1 but now when you see these kids apply maths methods of counting I was really shocked.
“When these kids are involved in such programmes they develop a strong love of maths early in their education journey. I really hope that other schools could be part of this programme.
“We need to create more partnerships and change this negative perception that maths is an extremely difficult subject,” he said.
Natalia Kavalenia, country manager at Matific South Africa explained that their company was an online digital maths solution for primary schools. She added that because they were cognizant that some schools might not have enough laptops and computers, pupils could also access and take part in the competition by phone.
Through the competition, she said they hope they had created good habits of practising maths and consolidating maths concepts. The key aim, however, was to ignite the love and passion for maths from the pupils, she said.
Principal Vuyiswa Somagaca said she was over the moon that her pupils had surprised everyone but coming out tops over some top schools.
She said this showed that there could be little or no difference between township schools and those in the urban areas when it came to the quality of teaching. What made it challenging, however, was the lack of resources at most township schools.
She said that the win meant that each and every child had the potential to become anything he or she wanted to be and it did not matter where one came from.