Kiwi “mathletes” take on the world

Left to right: Thorndon Primary School teacher Zeta Andrews, John Key, Anne Tolley, Amol Singh (age eight, year four), Yvonne Blanch – 3P Learning GM.

Thousands of Kiwi “mathletes”, backed by the Prime Minister, are now hard at work, exercising their digits as the third annual World Maths Day gets under way.

75,000 mathletes across NZ – equivalent to the population of Hastings – are taking on students around the world in quick-fire 60 second contests.

NZ is the seventh biggest team in the event, just behind Ireland and Singapore.

The Prime Minister, John Key, officially launched World Maths Day at Thorndon Primary School in Wellington last Wednesday, 4th March. He was joined by the minister of education, Anne Tolley.

World Maths Day is the biggest on-line education event in the world and is now in its third year.

“It is an exciting day,” said Yvonne Blanch, the NZ organiser of the event.

“Thousands of kids in hundreds of schools are putting aside other curriculum subjects to concentrate on basic maths skills so it’s a wonderful celebration of this core subject.

“It is especially great that Mr Key and Ms Tolley have shown their support for an event which provides a fantastic gateway for improving student achievement.

“Lifting maths skills is vital if we are to produce students better equipped for the challenges they face on leaving school.

“World Maths Day helps by making maths fun, exciting and relevant as thousands of Kiwi mathletes will tell you.”

More than 1.8 million were kept busy answering as many questions correctly as possible over a 48 hour period which ended at midnight on Thursday, 5th March.

“And it’s not just maths they learn – a bit of geography as well since our Kiwi mathletes are taking on other mathletes in 244 other countries. The contests give them some basic facts on these countries to help them understand the world a little better.

“I know Kiwi kids overseas are also trying to organise times to challenge their friends back home so it makes for a great community event.”

World Maths Day is powered by 3P Learning’s unique game engine Live Mathletics, part of the Mathletics learning platform -– www.mathletics.co.nz

“Mathletics is part of a fresh approach to lifting performance and I know Mr Key and Ms Tolley share our enthusiasm for finding new ways to inspire and motivate students to reach their goals.”