Can Mauritius Do Better Than 56th in Maths?

That's how we did in the 2009 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey. That puts us in the company of Thailand but a lot better than Qatar (80th) and Ghana (88th). But kind of far from the UK (28th) and Germany (16th). I think it was the only time we ever participated in this interesting exercise. Germany has used her PISA experience to improve her education system. Surely if its valuable to the exportweltmeister it will be for us too. Besides don't we pride ourselves on being quite good in the Queen of Sciences?

Speaking of mathematics there's also an important competition that we seemed to have missed since it was first organised back in... 1959. The 58th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) will take place in Rio de Janeiro between July 12 and 23. 109 countries have already confirmed their participation. Including plenty of African nations like Algeria, Botswana, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, South Africa and Tanzania. In last year's competition Thailand came out 12th. Even Syria will be in Rio. So should Mauritius. Details are at http://www.imo-official.org/.

Ghana Loses Match Against US Foolishly

I am a fan of Ghana since their good performance in the 2010 World Cup. So I stayed up late to watch them take on the Yankees. Although they conceded a very fast goal from Dempsey they kind of dominated the game -- Ghana had a 62% possession rate. And it was evident that they would probably put one in the second half. Which they did in the final eight minutes of the game. But then some really sloppy defending gave their opponent a corner which John Brooks deflected into the net of Kwarasey.

I hope they will bounce back because there's a lot of talent on this team. Go Ghana! Go!