This is our story of Maths Fest, a story of recent high school graduates who failed 20 times before finally convincing a sponsor to fund their project.[break]
Sitting roasted above the hot engine of the cabin of the last local vehicle, I had set my backpack and set off for Siraha after a tireless day hunched over for the orientation to different local schools in Lahan.
We were a team of 15 students who worked for months to figure out test centers. Finding a sponsor was a real cumbersome job. But finally, with the generous support of Shivam Cement and an offset press, we could start our work. Unlike essay writing competition, which is harder to administer given that there can be varied opinion among the judges, you unanimously get just one right solution for a given problem in math. And because students from Terai are much inclined toward math, it was like testing the dose they had taken by now.
Lahan was a frustrating and unexpectedly much-hyped educational hub. As I ventured schools for this fest, many principals uprightly rejected me. Some principals wouldn’t let their students participate only because the center we’d fixed was their arch-rival school! On the fest eve, we received many phone calls from students, who by other means knew about the competition and wanted to know how to participate. They said that the school discouraged them to participate for some odd reasons. We urged them to be independent candidates but it didn’t work out.
As our hunt for math lovers continued in different schools, we met equal number of encouraging and discouraging people. I remember giving an hour long orientation to one of the schools in Lahan, whose administration wasn’t even slightly helpful. I was hopelessly blank, for that meant about hundred students won’t know what a standardized competition is, even at the secondary level.
The rest of my team members joined me on August 9 in Siraha. The questions, answer sheet, certificates and prizes came in from Kathmandu, in a red bag with a ‘Maths Fest’ sticker on it. It gave us an immense feeling as organizers and made us proud of the efforts we had poured in day and night. Because we had planned to finish all the events in two days, we had to really push ourselves beyond the limit.
We had three test centers, each an hour ride from each other – White House School in Mirchaiya, Lahan Manakamana School in Lahan and Siraha Campus in Siraha. We got encouraging support from the local intellectuals who agreed to volunteer as invigilators.
On the exam morning, as we were dropped to our respective centers, the fresh air deeply invigorated us and prepared us for the big day. The examination was 2.45 hours long, and we were all really excited. I remember staying awake till 3 am and checking all those 350 test papers, proofreading them one by one, counting the marks several times and preparing statistics based on the students’ participation. I vividly remember congratulating the top 10 winners and thanking all the participants.
Of course, realizing this dream of ours wasn’t a cake walk. For one, the Terai heat nearly melted us, and there were times we felt totally discouraged. But as we look back now, we mostly recount what an enriching experience the Math Fest has been, for all of us.
We believe that there should be an organization in Nepal to carry out standardized tests at different levels regularly to fish out talents. In different countries, such tests are taken many times a year. They help students know what to pursue by the time they are about to pass SLC or high school. Education in Nepal needs to be revamped, and starting early and locally is the key, we believe.
The writer is a recent A-level graduate from Budhanilkantha School who loves making paper boxes for fun and enjoys doing math
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