Online Math Olympiad

Teachers’ Training team (TT) of Agami Education Foundation has initiated Math, Science and English Olympiad for the first time. Thirty six students from six Dhaka based Agami supported schools will participate in the Olympiad.  TT team has successfully completed the Online Math Olympiad on 28th February 2021. The program was conducted on zoom and was streamed live on Facebook. There were two participant students from each school. Four questions were there for each school where three were verbal questions and one was a written question. Students were instructed accordingly to answer each question within a given time. And for the written question students were instructed to follow all steps of that particular math and to show that on camera. 

PSD Nandipara School won the championship, Aalok Shikkhaloy stood in the second position and Switch Tahmina Banu Bidyaniketan obtained the third position in the Math Olympiad. Teachers’ training team is proud that our students participated in an online event for the very first time and performed very well. 

The main purpose of organizing such an event is to involve our students in a well-recognized learning program for the students who are mostly deprived of all modern ways of learning. Olympiad enhances the competitive skill of the students and grows their interest in the nature of the respective subject. It is a floor where students start brainstorming with high interest which eventually aids them to become sharp minded and clever problem solvers. The program has been initiated with a hope that the excitement of participating in such a competition will motivate our students to be lifelong learners. TT team of AEF feels unfortunate, as for the contemporary Covid-19 situation the event would not be conducted offline but at the same time feels happy that our students have got an opportunity to enhance their ICT skill by joining the program on an online platform.  

Before arranging this program TT team first mapped the best and convenient way to initiate this program with the most deprived students of our schools during this Covid19 situation.  First TT team looked for volunteers who would assist the team lead and the managers of TT to run this event smoothly. Among many CVs, TT selected some ten potential volunteers and divided them into three Olympiad teams. Then the managers started doing several virtual meetings with the volunteers and prepared syllabus for the Olympiad. Afterwards, the school head teachers were contacted through email and phone calls and the syllabus was sent to them. They were instructed to take thorough preparation for taking part in the Olympiad. Students and teachers worked really hard during the pandemic. In some schools, teachers took a mock test to select the participant students but in most participants were selected by the recommendation of subject teachers. The Math, English and Science Volunteers team prepared the Olympiad questions according to TT managers’ instruction and feedback. At the end just a few days before the event, TT called for an orientation where all volunteers, TT lead, TT managers, responsible teachers and selected students participated and took the orientation. They were elaborately given ideas about question pattern, procedure, and instructions on how to answer the questions and how to submit the questions. Some demo questions were also shared on the zoom screen for students to practice on how to answer the questions.

TT will arrange the next Olympiad event with all the Agami supported schools in the coming years.

Israt Sharmin
Dhaka, Bangladesh