Academy rewards 800 gifted pupils

NO fewer than 800 primary and secondary school students from Southwest Nigeria were honoured by the International Academy for the Gifted (IAGifted) for their excellent performance in the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) and the Kangarou Sans Frontiers (KSF) in the past year.

They were presented with medals ranging from gold, silver, bronze, and certificates of achievement at an event held in their honour at the Ambassadors School, Ota, Ogun State, recently.

The national coordinator of the academy, Mr Oyebola Fabowale, said the award recipients, ranging from primary school pupils aged seven to teenagers in senior secondary school, had recorded scores that put them in good standing globally.

He said the children really distinguished themselves among their peers from over 100 countries around the world, bringing glory to themselves, schools and Nigeria as a whole.

He explained that many among award recipients in both AMC and KSF were not thought to be the best in their schools until they were discovered by the academy’s assessment.

He said, “A gifted child is not necessarily the brilliant one but he or she who goes extra mile to do unique things through innovation in any area of public interests including engineering, sciences, arts and commercial.”

He said it was important to discover those types of children so they could be supported to fulfill their potential.

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In his own remarks, former director-general, National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Abuja, Professor Adewale Solarin, said competitions like these are ways of grooming Nigerian pupils for international mathematics Olympiads.

According to him, all Nigerians getting medals in the mathematics Olympiads participated, for example, in the AMC.

“And in 2015, we included the KSF which started right from primary one because we realised that waiting till they get to secondary school may not be advantageous.

“The genesis of participating in AMC 8 was when I found that children from Asia aged seven were getting 24 out of 25 marks. And this year, we have two Nigerian children trained in the country who scored 24/25,” he explained.

Solarin specially acknowledged a pupil of Ambassadors College, Ota, Faith Oluwatamilore Odunsi, a medalist, who had won two medals in the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO).

Parent of one of the pupils, Mrs Christiana Ojeli, was impressed that her son, Dominion, a JSS3 pupil of Imperial Lite College, Gowon Estate, Lagos, won a medal, considering that he was not regarded as the brightest in his class.