The more you do it, the better you become.

Photo: Awonke Nqayiya, the young man who know his Maths that he rewrote it.

Meet the up-and-coming young statistician, Awonke Nqayiya (24), born and bred in a rural area called Centane in Eastern Cape. He completed his lower grades at Seku Senior Primary School and Buru Junior Secondary School, both located in Centane. He matriculated with sound academic results from Gobe Commercial high school, also located in Centane. Upon completing high school, he enrolled at Nelson Mandela University where he completed a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics in 2018 with Cum Laude, and further completed honors majoring in Mathematical Statistics in 2019. This year he was grateful to be honored and celebrated by the Golden Key International Honors Society for academic excellence. Currently, he is a master's candidate at Nelson Mandela University majoring in Mathematical Statistics.

Awonke is the man behind the well celebrated study guide by the nation. The study guide is a Mathematics guide in paper two for Grade 11 and 12 learners. It seeks to smoothly develop the understanding of learners in four chapters namely Statistics, Analytical Geometry, Trigonometry and Euclidean Geometry.

Please share when did you commence with writing the study guide and what inspired you to go for it? "I wrote the study guide in 2017 and finished with the first draft late in 2018. I proofread and edited the study guide in 2019, and finalized the process early this year, 2020. This process of proofreading and editing shaped the study guide to what it actually is now in terms of the standard and quality of the content. My former Mathematics high school educator Mr WZ Ngolo, my former university lecturer Dr C Pretorius and my two Maths buddies Mr S Fono and Mr S Njonga assisted greatly in the proofreading process and offered constructive comments as guidance. I was also guided by the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy (CAPS) guidelines together with the previous question papers to ensure that the study guide contains content that is relevant to high school learners in Grade 11 and 12. The writing process was quite enjoyable and had fewer challenges. It just was not easy to receive a sponsor to fund the project. As a result, I had to fund it by myself".

"The inspiration came from normally spending a fraction of my time tutoring Mathematics to high school learners over the university holidays. From the interactions I have had with the learners, I identified common struggles the learners have in Mathematics. It is also a general knowledge that the majority of learners usually have hard time when learning Mathematics. It is such struggles that inspired me, and that is how ‘Mathematics with Nqayiya’ was born as part of the solution. I wanted to offer a helping hand. Hence, I commenced with the writing process of the study guide in 2017. I wanted to compile and avail a Mathematics study guide that will simplify the complexities of Mathematics in paper two for Grade 11 and 12 learners".

The pandemic – what has it taught you as a statistician in South Africa? "The pandemic has shown me how significant is the field of Statistics in our lives. Every decision that has been formulated regarding Covid-19 was crucial, and the majority of such decisions were informed by Science, and that's where Statistics has contributed. This includes the understanding of the rate of spread of the virus, identification of hotspots, estimation of upcoming waves, and other concerns".

Lastly - how can people buy your study guide?

It can be ordered straight from my WhatsApp line 073 426 6012. Each copy is sold at R220 plus R60 for delivery services where needed.

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Twitter: @nqayiya1

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