LAHORE, Sept 13: About 43 per cent of Pakistani students have performed better than the world average in the mathematical contest held for the students of grades three to 12 in March last.

According to the result declared by the Pakistan Kangaroo Commission here on Monday, about 35,000 students had participated from all over the country, including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

This was the sixth year of Pakistan’s participation in the world contest held annually by the International Association Mathematiqueans Frontiers (Mathematics without Borders).

In the first year held in 2005 about 8,000 students of Pakistan had participated in the contest. This year about 5.5 million students had taken part in the competition from 46 countries of the world.

Pakistan Kangaroo Commission chairman and GCU’s Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences Director General Dr AD Raza Chaudhry said the result has been declared after the commission had compiled a detailed performance analysis of the participants. “The result shows that young Pakistani students are progressing in mathematics year after year. Last year about 41 per cent of students were above the world average.”

He said a special characteristic of the contest was that it encouraged the school children to excel in mathematics. In Pakistan it had ignited much-needed enthusiasm for mathematics among the school children and their teachers. He said not only 43 of per cent students had performed better than the world average but 34 of them had also won the national top positions who formed part of the world’s top four per cent of the students this year.