After its recent impressive brain-racking Building-Word Competition for students from various basic and secondary schools in West Coast Region, TAKE-M on Saturday 22 November this year held another compact competition for schoolchildren on Mathematics called “Competition on Multiplication: Mother of Mathematics” (COMMOM), at the Hon Baboucarr O. Joof Conference Centre in Brikama.
The 35 students who took part in the competition were tasked with reading out the Multiplication Tables from Table 2 to Table 12 within 3 minutes. Twenty-five of them amazingly made it to the final, which is slated for next week.
“In this global economy, one of the most effective ways to set our children up for success is to ensure they receive excellent multiplication skills at early stage; that is a cornerstone of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education,” said TAKE-M’s Chief Executive Officer Tunde M.N. Ogundimu.
COMMOM is a platform where multiplication tables play a pivotal role, particularly in elementary education, for reasons such as foundation for advanced mathematics, and real-world application.
“Multiplication isn’t just an abstract concept confined to the classroom; it has practical uses in daily life (real-world application), as it is frequently encountered in everyday situations,” Mr Ogundimu said, adding that COMMOM is crucial for children to learn, understand and recall multiplication facts, making it an indispensable tool in elementary mathematics education.
The exercise was sponsored by Africell, who contributes immensely to supporting education in The Gambia at various levels of studies hence its involvement in TAKE-M’s education programmes such as COMMOM. “Africell is very much happy to support such a programme that helps schoolchildren to develop their knowledge in Mathematics and learning,” said Joseph Falodun, who, together with Ya Adam Bowen, represented Africell at the event.
“Africell supports and enjoys not only the multiplication exercise,” he added. “Africell also contributes and involves in other areas of human interest and developments such as health, sport, music and other educational activities.”
In his closing remarks on the occasion, Malang Kuyateh, retired Principal Education Officer of the Education Ministry, congratulated the students for their excellent performance in the competition. He also congratulated Africell for their tireless effort in promoting human and national development through its various corporate social responsibility activities in The Gambia.
Since its commencement in 2015, Mr Malang recalls, TAKE-M has continued to transform and build students’ IQ and learning capability via its educational exercises such as Spelling Bee and COMMOM.
“TAKE-M has been training, organising and conducting competitions for students in Mathematics, Science and English Language,” he concluded.
