Animath in Africa
The year 2024 saw the affirmation of the associations recently created to promote the development of extracurricular activities in four countries: Djibouti with ADAM-MATHS; Senegal with TERANGAMATH; Cameroon with PROMOMATHS; Madagascar with IMATEMATIKO and CREM.
Founded in 1998, Animath promotes extracurricular activities for high school and middle school students. This affects several hundred thousand students every year: math clubs, theater, conferences, competitions and Olympics, video channels, etc. For the past five years, Animath has benefited from the support of Campus-France to develop such activities in sub-Saharan Africa. This made it possible to organize intensive sessions in 2019 for high school students from seven African countries and support for the creation of mathematics clubs.
The COVID crisis has put a severe brake and we have been able to maintain remote links with varying degrees of success. In 2023, summer schools were organized in five countries, Cameroon, Djibouti, Madagascar, Senegal, Congo-DRC. The year 2024 saw the long-term establishment of Animath’s four partner associations.
In Djibouti
With the Djiboutian association for the Development of Extracurricular Mathematical Activities ADAM-Maths, two sessions were organized in January and November. Eleven clubs are already operating for students from 24 middle schools and 6 high schools in the capital. Three hundred students take part every other Friday. Specialties: preparation for the various math Olympiads, programming, games and logic, cryptography.
• January session, with 85 high school students and 40 teachers. Report of the course: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1es8oh1dfUyft7LfAu_boJIXbO5FX-8R1/edit
• November session, with about sixty high school students and about thirty teachers.
The students of the Olympic club. November course.
In Senegal
TERANGAMATH intervenes in three major high schools in Dakar, Thiaroye and Diourbel, with the support of the FORCE-N program of the Mastercard Foundation. The weekly courses bring together 140 students. A dozen clubs are in the works for 2025. “TERANGAMATH’s approach is based on hands-on activities, interactive workshops, extracurricular clubs, lectures and open discussions, allowing you to discover the fascinating world of mathematics off the beaten track. We aspire to create a close-knit community where curiosity is encouraged, and where every question is greeted with the spirit of Teranga. The association’s role is also to detect, from middle and high school, talents across Senegal and to prepare them for international mathematics competitions. »
In March in Dakar, Olympic preparation course led by an “animathrice” (ENS Paris-Saclay and Olympiade Francophone): https://www.terangamath.com/preparation-olympique. In May in Paris: “Senegal” stand with the SenEdition association at the International Culture and Mathematical Games Fair on the Place Saint-Sulpice. In October in Dakar, a training course organized by TERANGA and FORCE-N to launch a YouTube channel of math videos for high school students. Fifteen participants, all mathematicians or physicists. Seven videos were made. Project conducted in collaboration with the Djiboutian association ADAM-Maths.
In Cameroon
In Ngonksamba, PromoMaths develops during the year its activity with several components, preparation and participation in various Olympiads (French, African, international) club meetings, organization of the “Pi-Day”, Al-Kindi cryptography competition with 581 students etc., In August, for ten full days, Maths School in Yaoundé. 62 students participated, including 19 girls, at the Ecole des Postes et des Télécommunication, supervised by 5 local facilitators. As the Animath speaker had to cancel his participation, the PromoMaths facilitators were nevertheless able to cope successfully by addressing subjects related to their own research themes.
In Madagascar
In Fianarantsoa, the imatematiko club and the CREM, a research centre on mathematics education, run various extracurricular activities during the year. The follow-up is provided remotely by professors from the University of Paris-Cité, the Polytechnic University of Madrid, a doctoral student in Madrid and on site by Malagasy teachers and doctoral students. Two summer schools were organized: Session at the end of July at the ENS of the University of Fianarantsoa for 21 students selected from the scientific classes of 13 high schools. Topics covered: Number theory, Combinatorics, inequalities, graph theory, Functional equations, Operational invariants, algorithmics, geometry.
End of October and beginning of November: “Olympic” course for about twenty students.
Good news: the OFM, Francophone Mathematics Olympiad, has been implemented by Animath as well as a POFM, preparation for the OFM. Each year, a different country provides international coordination for the GFO. It is entrusted for 2025 to France (Animath), in 2026 it will be to Djibouti (ADAM-MATHS), and to Senegal (TERANGAMATH) in 2027. Two types of clubs are implemented in Africa by our partners: Olympic clubs with selection at the entrance, which work on subjects specific to the OFM and more generally to the various Olympiads.
The “Maths differently” clubs which deal with more unusual subjects with the ambition of strengthening the students’ motivations.
The article on the Animath website: see https://animath-international.fr/
Christian DUHAMEL
In charge of international relationships
Animath
