Mathematical competitions in Africa: their prevalence and relevance to students and teachers

Mathematical competitions feature in most developed countries as a part of the secondary school experience, but to a lesser extent in developing countries. In this paper we investigate how widespread these competitions are in Africa, both historically as well as currently, focussing both on national Olympiads and on the participation of African countries in competitions beyond their borders, such as the continent-wide Pan African Mathematical Olympiad and the global International Mathematical Olympiad. Since we could not find a consolidated source of information on African competitions, we include many details and links, hoping that this paper will serve as a valuable starting point for future investigators. Next, we present some survey findings on the attitudes towards and experiences of mathematical competitions, both from the perspective of teachers in secondary schools as well as from secondary school students, and whether these experiences have served to improve or degrade their perceptions of mathematics in general. Among other results, we find that teachers view their students’ participation in mathematics competitions as being important, with the biggest barrier to participation being that there are not enough competitions at appropriate levels available, and that students enjoy mathematics competitions and are more likely to pursue a STEM career because of them. Finally, we present some suggestions on how this research may be taken further, and on how the state of mathematical competition culture in Africa may be improved.