中国的奥数热

In 2005, the Ministry of Education issued a regulation forbidding state-run primary and junior middle schools from offering Olympic math courses. It later cancelled the policy of including Olympic math on school entrance examinations. Likewise in 2010, the ministry cancelled a regulation that the winners of Mathematics Olympiads could be recommended for admission to junior middle schools to remove some of the heavy study burden from students.

The Chengdu government has achieved a huge success since it issued harsh regulations banning Olympic math training in 2009. Local authorities prohibit state-run schoolteachers from working part-time to teach Olympic math and have removed school headmasters who give weight to Olympic math performance in student admissions.

For most primary students in Chengdu, this came as a huge relief.

"I feel like a caged bird been set free."

"I have more time to do physical exercises and have fun. And I can cultivate my own hobbies."

The students' parents were also relieved.

"A child doesn't need to study that hard, and we parents feel less pressure. For primary school students, study should come second. Their major work is to cultivate learning habits."

Some schools in Chengdu now offer math interest-oriented courses. Li Qingming, a previous Olympic math coach, is teaching one such course in a primary school. He says the courses can cultivate genuine skills and number logic.

"I may assign only one or two questions to the students every week and teach them different mathematical thinking through various solutions to the same question."

But some schools continue to violate the regulation by administering Olympic math competitions under various other names. They call them "scholarship contests," "junior middle school interviews" or "surveys on primary school math education." Private schools that do not fall under the ban also continue to hold Olympic math competitions, which parents say is a spectacle as grand as university entrance exams. Yet, some parents who stopped sending their children to Olympic math classes say they bitterly regretted it.

A similar case occurred in Xi'an, Shanxi Province. Seven local departments encountered problems when they decided upon a joint action regarding Olympic math classes. Sixty primary students shouted, "Get out" when local officials entered classrooms, saying there was nothing wrong with them learning Olympic math to attend good schools. With tears in their eyes, the students' parents asked for a fair and just way for their children to go to good schools.

While it seems that China has taken steps to try to eliminate the heavy burden that Olympic math has placed on students, many parents believe the efforts have not been enough. Perhaps the basic reasons are the unbalanced distribution of educational resources and the student evaluation system. At present, many headmasters find it difficult to choose one of 10 primary students if the tests are too easy. Compared to children who get into good schools because their parents have power and money, Olympic math scores are a relatively fair way to evaluate all students.

Experts believe public and private Olympic math tests will remain as long as schools decide to include them as part of the admissions criteria. While there is nothing wrong with Olympic math and math competitions themselves, it is not right to force all students to learn the subject as a compulsory requirement.

Banning the Olympic math frenzy is only a step forward. The ultimate solution is to invest more money in education, balance the teaching quality and create a trustworthy and diversified evaluation system.

For CRI, I'm Zhang Wan.