Uganda trails at world maths competition

By Ronald Kalyango

Ugandan students were among the worst performers at the recently-concluded mathematics competitions in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

The chairperson of the Uganda Mathematical Society (UMS) revealed that out of the five students who represented the country at the International Mathematics Olympiad, only two students got a point each out of the possible 42 points in the six papers they did.

Speaking during this year’s UMS annual general meeting at Makerere University, Ssebugenyi blamed the country’s poor performance on limited training.

“We spent a lot of time looking for money to cater for students’ air tickets, meaning that we didn’t fully train our contestants,” lamented Ssebugenyi.

Over 90 countries competed in the annual event, which is the oldest of the international science olympiads.

The competitions attracted 548 students.  Contestants who scored at least 28 points received a gold medal each.

Silver medals were awarded to those who garnered between 21 to 27 points, while those who got between 14 and 20 points received bronze medals.

Singapore’s Jeck Lim is the only contestant who scored 42 points and receive a gold medal.