How many mathematical minds do you suppose go unnoticed in Sri Lanka? The core subject of several relevant fields of study, don’t seem to be receiving much credit. The matter is evident when looking at the recent International Mathematics Competition.
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| Chanakya J. Wijeratne. |
The competition held in Incheon, Korea, saw Sri Lanka participate for the first time with a team comprising teenagers aged from 15 to 16 years, and the team emerging as second runner up in their group at the international event.
There’s no doubt Sri Lanka has gems of mathematical minds scattered across the island, but what’s being done to encourage and cultivate the talent? The two teams that were sent from Sri Lanka consisted of B. M. Rankothge, W. M. D. Kanchana N, Ranasinghe, K.W. S. M. Wijayawardhana and P. M. N. Wijewardena—from team A and H. A. Kothalawala, C. N. Jayakody, T. M. Sathira Sankaja Tennakoon and A. Janathan—from team B.
Following an island wide mathematics competition the participants were selected to represent Sri Lanka. The students were from the following schools - Dharmaraja College Kandy, Royal College Colombo, St.Thomas’ Girls’ High School Matara, Maliyadeva College Kurunagela, Visakha Vidhyalaya Colombo, Mahinda College Galle and St. John’s College Jaffna.
The young mathematicians were competing against a total of 636 contestants from 26 countries. Doing Sri Lanka proud Kanchana Ranasinghe won a Bronze Medal and Sameera Wijayawardhana, Mevan Wijewardena, Chamath Jayakody, and Sathira Sankaja Tennakoon were awarded Merit Certificates.
The participants returned triumphantly to the island with 9 bronze medals. Of course their achievements were entirely their effort and the participants had not much in terms of sponsorships and publicity, according to Chanakya J. Wijeratne, CEO of Sri Lanka Olympiad Mathematics Foundation and Senior Lecturer and Former Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Colombo.
“These children are the future leaders of the country. And these competitions not only help them in improving their skills but it takes them out into the world. They learn about cultures and people. It expands their knowledge and makes them better prepared to face the world,” says Chanakya. He goes on to say the Olympiad Mathematics Foundation has been working over the years to helping these gifted students by providing them with tutors who are advanced enough to cultivate their talent. The children appreciate mathematics much more he says adding, “none of the contestants have done their GCE O/L exam yet but they are all excited about mathematics and appreciate the beauty in mathematics [having participated in the competition]”.
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Trainers for the team this year were Kasun Fernando and Supun Samarakoon, both of whom have previously participated in the International Mathematics Olympiad. Speaking about training the younger participants, Supun says “it was really fun because they love maths which made training them all the more enjoyable”. Kasun adds “interacting with people who love mathematics and helping them excel is what we get from training them and that’s a great experience”.
“It was an interesting and very challenging competition,” says Kanchana, “we got to meet and interact with people and shared ideas. It is definitely beneficial to young people”. Echoing his sentiments the other participants were thrilled by both their achievements at the competition and the opportunity it represented them.
With a little more support and encouragement from the country we may well see Sri Lanka return with gold medals at the next International Mathematics Competition that is set to be held in Taipei, Taiwan in July of 2012. |
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