75,000 New Zealand “mathletes” take on the world

Media statement
For immediate release
4 March 2009

75,000 New Zealand “mathletes” take on the world

PM launches World Maths Day at Thorndon Primary School, Wellington. Left to right: Thorndon Primary School teacher Zeta Andrews, Prime Minister, Education Minister Anne Tolley, Amol Singh (age 8, year 4), Yvonne Blanch – 3P Learning GM 

Thousands of Kiwi “mathletes”, backed by the Prime Minister, are now hard at work, exercising their digits as the third annual World Maths Day gets underway.

75,000 mathletes across New Zealand - equivalent to the population of Hastings - are taking on students around the world in quick-fire 60 second contests. New Zealand is the seventh biggest team in the event, just behind Ireland and Singapore.

The Prime Minister, the Hon John Key, officially launched World Maths Day at Thorndon Primary School in Wellington this morning. He was joined by the Minister of Education, the Hon Anne Tolley.

World Maths Day is the biggest online education event in the world and is now in its third year – www.worldmathsday.com

“It’s an exciting day,” said Yvonne Blanch, the New Zealand organiser of the event. “Thousands of kids in hundreds of schools are putting aside other curriculum subjects to concentrate on basic maths skills so it’s a wonderful celebration of this core subject.

“It’s especially great that the Prime Minister and Minister of Education have shown their support for an event which provides a fantastic gateway for improving student achievement.

“Lifting maths skills is vital if we are to produce students better equipped for the challenges they face on leaving school.

“World Maths Day helps by making maths fun, exciting and relevant as thousands of Kiwi mathletes will tell you.”

More than 1.8 million will be keeping busy answering as many questions correctly as possible over a 48 hour period which ends at midnight on Thursday, 5 March.

“And it’s not just maths they learn – a bit of geography as well since our Kiwi mathletes are taking on other mathletes in 244 other countries. The contests give them some basic facts on these countries to help them understand the world a little better.

“I know Kiwi kids overseas are also trying to organise times to challenge their friends back home so it makes for a great community event.”

World Maths Day is powered by 3P Learning’s unique game engine Live Mathletics, part of the Mathletics learning platform - www.mathletics.co.nz.

“Mathletics is part of a fresh approach to lifting performance and I know the Prime Minister and Minister of Education share our enthusiasm for finding new ways to inspire and motivate students to reach their goals.”

ENDS

Note: 3P Learning will be donating $4 from every Mathletics home licence sold before 10 March to UNICEF.

Background notes

About World Maths Day
• Begins 12am, Wednesday 4 March and runs as long as it is 4 March anywhere in the world
• Free and open to all students from Year 1 to 13
• Registrations close Sunday 1 March
• Students compete in 60 second real time contests with others around the world
• Students instantly see a tally of their scores and relative position in the world
• Teachers can enter entire classes and track their students’ progress

In 2008:
• 1,099,128 students participated from 7,542 cities in 164 countries
• 182,455,169 questions were answered correctly
• The challenge record was 96 questions answered in 60 seconds
• 25,000 New Zealand students competed from more than 400 schools
• New Zealand was placed 5th
• The highest placed New Zealander finished 19th

About Mathletics
• The world’s most used mathematics website
• Trusted and regularly used by more than 700 New Zealand schools and 40,000 students
• Students have answered more than 4 billion questions since Mathletics was launched in 2006
• Interactive activities tailored to the New Zealand curriculum for years 1 to 13 with full support designed to engage students every day and motivate them to improve their results
• Students receive immediate feedback so they know how they are progressing
• Homework can be set and marked online
• Teachers can monitor their students’ progress
• Parents can access their child’s work, certificates and reports online
• A world leader in innovative web-based learning - 3P Learning won a prestigious 2009 BETT award in London in January 2009
• Developed and maintained by 3P Learning Pty Ltd, based in Sydney, a global leader in online mathematics learning with offices in New Zealand, UK, Canada, US and South Africa
• Shareholders include NineMSN, PBL Media and Pascal Press

ENDS

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