Beijing bans hothousing for maths
olympiads
Officials fear tough training may ruin
pupils' childhood and kill creativity
Pupils trying out maths olympiad questions (above)
during an exam in Xi'an, and a boy looking through assessment books
(left) with olympiad questions at a Shanghai bookstore. For many
pupils whose families have neither money nor connections, being a
maths ace, proven by olympiad wins, is a way to get into a good
school.
PHOTOS: CHINA FOTO PRESS
By HO AI LI
CHINA CORRESPONDENT
BEIJING - Grandpa Li is 70 years old and has grandsons aged five,
15 and 20. How many years does it take before the total of their
ages is the same as their grandfather's age?
This maths question is aimed at Primary 3 pupils in China
- or at least those who go for classes to prepare for the
International Mathematical Olympiad contest.
Chinese students may be top in maths worldwide, but
officails in Beijing have banned such maths classes, for fear that
too much advanced adding and subtracting will not only spoil
pupils' childhoods, but also stymie their creatvity.
What started out as a way to pick out whiz-kids who can
represent China in a global maths competition has become a thriving
industry of after-school classes to hothouse maths geniuses.
"Overly tough maths questions are the merciless murderers
of children's health and interest in learning," wrote Professor
Yang Dongping, an education expert, who supports the ban.
But many observers wonder if the latest move is enough to
kill this many-headed hydra, which reflects deeper problems in
China's education system.
As Education Minister Yuan Guiren explained to reporters
on Thursday, the demand for such maths classes stemmed from
differences in school standards.
"The problem stands out particularly in big cities, due
to the uneven development of compulsory education and lack of
quality education resources," he said.
Under China's nine-year compulsory education system,
there are no primary school leaving exams, like in Singapore, to
decide which junior high school children get into. They are
supposed to just go to the nearest one.
But in major cities like Beijing, parents want their
children to get into key schools, or zhong dian xue xiao, which
enjoy better resources and results.
In the case of the high school affiliated to Renmin
University, for instance, half of its 2009 school-leaving cohort
made it into Beijing's top three universities: Peking, Tsinghua and
Renmin.
"The problem is especially serious in Beijing as it has
many key schools at the junior high level. THey all want to choose
their own students," Prof Yang, who is from the Beijing Institute
of Technology, told The Straits Times.
Currently, these schools select students based mainly on
fees, talent or "slips" (tiao zi), a way of denoting those with
connections.
Being an ace in maths proven by wins in math olympiads
(ao shu), is seen as a way to get into a good school for those with
neither money nor special ties.
"Maths olympiads are the last resort for ordinary
salaried families like ours... We can't find any solid connections
and are not big shots," a mother surnamed Ding told the China Youth
Daily.
Other parents welcomed the move to lighten the burden on
their children, but said the classess were not all bad.
Said Mr Xing Hua, 39, a logistics manager whose
10-year-old daughter attends special maths lessons twice a week:
"Some parents with no time to pick up their children early see
these classess as a kind of childcare."
For now, officials have put their foot down on ao shu
classes or contests.
Thirty of Beijing's most popular secondary schools have
promised not to take in students based on exams or maths contest
wins.
"In the long run, schools must be more or less even (in
quality)," said the Education Minister.
Despite the ban, the demand for ao shu is unlikely to
fall dramatically any time soon. After all, as Prof Yang noted:
"Everybody wants to go to a good school."
By the way, the answer to the math question is 15
years.
World, The Straits Times, Saturday, September 8 2012, Pg A12