The Mico University College is singing the praises of the private sector as several organisations have thrown their support behind the univeristy college’s International Mathematics Teaching Summit scheduled for March 25-27, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

Among them are NCB Insurance Company Limited and NCB Foundation which are providing sponsorship to the tune of $5 million; and National Water Commission, which is putting up $2.5 million.

Mico reported that the list of sponsors features some 20 private sector players.

Speaking at a branding ceremony for the Mathematics in Innovation Competition component of the summit last week, Antonio Spence, senior assistant general manager, said the company was “privileged to be associated with this innovative competition in maths education, and we are particularly happy to see these seeds being planted in our youngest Jamaicans.

“We look forward to working with Mico to transform mathematics, transform our students and to transform our nation,” he said.

Senator Aubyn Hill, in his comments as chairman of the National Water Commission, argued that for Jamaica to achieve its development target, the country needs to churn out more professionals who are mathematically equipped.

“When you look at countries that have really done very well and have moved their people from states of poverty to much more prosperity and progress you have to realise that there is a great deal of learning and mathematics that brought about that change,” he said.

He continued, “We really believe that mathematics is going to change this country. The reason NWC is backing this summit [is that] if we are going to grow this country we can’t turn out 200 engineers. We want nurses who are IT-savvy so they can walk into Japan, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia and rock the nursing industry. Let us turn Jamaica into the mathematical capital of the entire Latin America.”

Hill also used the opportunity to commend the private sector for seeing this math summit as an imperative and showing their support for the subject and its teaching.

Speaking from the perspective of the Economic Growth Council he stated, “We have a lot of lawyers, and yes, we need them but what we really need are 5,000 engineers, and currently we are only putting out 250 engineers.

The three-day summit, being executed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, the University of Plymouth, and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, was able to attract international speakers from high-performing Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) countries.