The 2025 Bank Windhoek Coastal Maths Challenge concluded the first round. A total of 1079 learners from 13 coastal schools recently participated in the first round of the 2025 Bank Windhoek Coastal Maths Challenge. 

Facilitated under the supervision of teachers at participating schools, learners from grades 8, 9 and 10 completed the challenge, which consisted of a multiple choice question paper for each grade. 

Magret Courtney-Clarke of Orison Educational Services, said the Bank Windhoek Coastal Maths Challenge’s first round aims to expose as many learners as possible to mathematics problem solving.

“Noteworthy is the performance of some government schools, including six Kuisebmond Secondary School learners, five Namib High School learners and four Flamingo High School learners who qualified for the second round of the challenge,” she said.

The annual Bank Windhoek Coastal Maths Challenge aims to expose learners to problem-solving in a context of challenges and fun and motivate teachers and learners to engage in problem solving activities more regularly. The three best individual performers and the three best performing teams in each grade will receive winning medals. The Bank Windhoek Trophy for the Best Performing School will also be awarded.

After the conclusion of the first round of the Challenge with 1 079 learners, 72 learners qualified for the second round. The answer sheets of learners who scored more than one-third of the answers correctly were submitted to the team leaders of the Walvis Bay and Swakopmund clusters. 

The team leaders are two teachers selected from local coastal schools, who selected the 12 best performing learners in each grade among their cluster schools to progress to the second round of the challenge. 

The second round will pitch the top performers of the Walvis Bay cluster against the top performers of the Swakopmund cluster teams. Courtney-Clarke added that this year, all participating schools, except for one Swakopmund and one Walvis Bay school, will be represented in the second round. 

The second round of the 2025 Bank Windhoek Coastal Maths Challenge will take place at Namib High School in Swakopmund on 9 April 2025. The 72 selected learners, 36 from each cluster, will compete individually and as teams. The competing learners will then battle it out in three papers: an individual speed test, a multiple-choice test and a team test.