• JIMCOBSA was launched at the start of 2021 to facilitate the national training and selection of teams to represent South Africa at the International Mathematics Competition (IMC) for primary and high school learners. The first national training for IMC only occurred with the creation of JIMCOBSA, although there were attempts earlier at selecting and training teams at a national level. One previous attempt was in 2019 when two primary school teams and two high school teams were selected as the first ever national teams, while the remaining teams were regional teams similar to teams in prior years. The hope was that the creation of JIMCOBSA would not only nationalize the selection of merit-based teams, but would also lead to improved training and better results.

    This phenomenon was not unique to South Africa, because as the IMC expanded in popularity, many countries had to move from regional or city based teams to national based teams. In order to facilitate this process, the IMC Executive Council launched the International Mathematics Assessments for School (IMAS) in 2011. This selection test organized internationally aims to help countries select merit based national teams in a fair and transparent selection process. There is unfortunately an administration fee of $3 per participant.

    Unfortunately, although we have managed to nationalize the training and the process of selecting merit-based national teams, we are still struggling to
    Directors: Ms Kitty Phillips, Dr Elsie Schoombie, Phil Labuschagne

    JIMCOBSA was launched at the start of 2021 to facilitate the national training and selection of teams to represent South Africa at the International Mathematics Competition for primary school and high school learners. Although there were also attempts earlier at selecting and training teams at a national level, the first national training only occurred with the creation of JIMCOBSA. However, in 2019 two primary school teams and two high school teams were selected as the first ever national teams (the other teams were regional teams as have also been the case with teams before 2019). The hope is that the creation of JIMCOBSA will not only nationalize selection and standardize training across the country, but will also lead to improved training and better results.