LAHORE, Nov 30: The International Kangaroo Mathematics Contest (IKMC) 2012 will be held on March 15, 2012, says an official announcement.

Around six million school and college students from grade III to XII from 57 countries around the world are expected to take part in the contest. This makes it the world’s largest mathematical event.

Pakistan is also participating in the contest and this will be its seventh year of participation.

Dr AD Raza Choudary, president of the Pakistan Kangaroo Commission, said in a statement here on Wednesday that in Pakistan there was great enthusiasm among school/college teachers and students to excel in mathematics. This was something much needed to encourage Pakistani students to show their talent in science at the international level. Hundreds of thousands of students from Pakistan have already benefited from the wide exposure the competition offers.

“A good number of our students have performed exceptionally well at the international level especially in the past three years.

As a result of this performance they have received gold and silver medals. I hope that Pakistan’s students will come up with even better results this time round,” he said.

Pakistan first participated in the international mathematics event in 2005, when around 8,000 students took part in the contest.

Last year their number increased to 42,000.

He said this year the kangaroo commission had asked all schools and colleges to send their registration by Dec 15. Detailed information on registration for the contest can found at the website: www.kangaroo.edu.pk.