KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information will observe National Mathematics Week 2021, from March 28 to April 1, under the theme “Born to Do Math”.

Dr Tamika Benjamin, national mathematics coordinator at the ministry, said the ministry continues to emphasise the importance of Mathematics to every sphere of life.

“We have always being pushing to change the attitude to the subject. We want to highlight particularly this year that we believe that every child, parent, every Jamaican has the ability to do Math,” she said.

The Week’s activities will start with a virtual church service, at the Webster Memorial United Church in Kingston on March 28, at 8:00 am.

This will be followed by two virtual Math Explosions on March 30th and 31st. According to Dr Benjamin, the first will target primary school students, while the second will focus on secondary level students.

Over the two day period, students will have the opportunity to participate in activities such as: math games, motivational talks, and hear success stories from persons who struggled through Mathematics and are now successful.

A highpoint of this year’s celebration will be the ‘Make Math Loud Challenge’, where participants will be required to produce a one to two minute video, showing how they use Math in their everyday life.

The video should be uploaded to either the Ministry’s Facebook or Instagram page using the hashtag #makemathloud.

The video that gets the most likes, views and shares will be declared the winner. The deadline for submission of the video is midnight, March 28. The wining video will also be shown during the Math Explosion activities.

“We are inviting every Jamaican, whether you are a student, parent, grandparent, not a parent – it is open to anybody,” Dr Benjamin stated.

In addition, for two hours during the ‘Two Live Crew’ radio programme on RJR 94 FM on March 30, members of the public will have the opportunity to win prizes by answering Math questions.

“We are also trying to respond to the fact that activities cannot be done physically, therefore all Math Week activities can be viewed on the Ministry’s social media platforms,” Dr Benjamin said.

The week will culminate with a group of students who are interested in pursuing Math-based careers, interacting with the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, who will give a motivational talk.

This will be followed by a group of Math Teachers engaging with the Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, in a rap session.

JIS