Call for establishment of International Science Olympiads Council in Malaysia to prepare Malaysians to excel internationally in mathematics and sciences as an important step to transform the country into a power-house in these two subjects

(Penang, Wednesday): Speaking at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)’s 31^st Convocation ten days ago, the USM  Pro-Chancellor Tan Sri Razali Ismail said that graduates should be brave enough to allow their achievements to be tested at the international level to know where they stand. 

He said Malaysian graduates should not only compete among themselves but also with others at the international level, especially in the development of knowledge and education. 

The question is whether Malaysia is serious in wanting to transform itself into an international centre of academic excellence, where the best and the brightest in Malaysia can compete with the best and brightest anywhere in the world in all academic fields? 

I have just got the results of the 43rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), held in Glasgow from 19-30 July 2002,  with participation by 82 countries with each entitled to send a team of up to six students.  

The first lesson from the results of the 43^rd International Mathematical Olympiad is that 13 of the top 15 countries do not use English to teach mathematics.  The top 15 countries with their scores (the maximum  score obtainable per country is 252 -  the total of the scores of the six contestants, where the maximum individual  score is  42  from six questions with maximum seven  points each) are as follows:

Malaysia’s performance in the 2002 IMO was a triple setback. Firstly,  Malaysia fared poorly in national placing, falling eight places to No. 67 as compared to No. 59 placing last year.  

Secondly, Malaysia continued to get a “duck’s egg” in the individual medals tally.  China  repeated the feat at the 2001 IMO in Washignton  last year as the only country to bag the maximum of six gold medals.   Malaysia however repeated not only last year but previous year’s performance of not winning a single medal, although a total of 39 gold medals, 73 silver medals and 120 bronze medals were awarded. The medal tally for the various Asian countries  in the IMO last month are as follows:

2002 International Mathematical Olympiad Medals Tally

The third setback for Malaysia in the 2002 IMO was that Malaysia’s total national score had plunged to the lowest in five years. Viz:

The detailed scores for the six Malaysian contestants in the 2002 IMO are: 1, 8, 11, 1,  4, 1 to total the national score of 26, when the maximum score for an individual is 42. 

Can the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad explain why the mathematics attainments of Malaysian students seem to be getting worse, not only compared to other countries but also when compared to previous years, from the Malaysian results in the International Mathematical Olympiads of the past five  years  – despite so much rhetoric about wanting  Malaysia to become an international centre of academic excellence? 

Malaysians would want to know, and this should be one of the focus in the forthcoming Parliament which will reconvene on Sept. 9, as to what is the criteria for the selection of Malaysian contestants, and whether Chinese Independent Secondary School students are included, to represent Malaysia in the annual International Mathematical Olympiads for pre-university High School students, which are held with three aims, viz: 

• To discover, encourage and challenge mathematically gifted young people in all countries;
• To foster friendly relations between mathematicians of all counries;
• To create opportunities for the exchange of information on school syllabuses and practices throughout the world.

Malaysia should emulate the example of other countries by organizing Malaysian Mathematics Olympiads as an annual competition for high school students, which should be open to Chinese Independent Secondary school students, aimed to produce the “top-of-the-year” mathematical students and be a basis for selection to represent Malaysia at the International Mathematical Olympiads. 

Malaysia has generally a dismal result in all the International Science Olympiads – whether mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology or informatics. 

In the 33^rd 2002 International  Physics Olympiad (IPO) held at Bali last month, where a total of 42 gold medals, 37 silver medals and 58 bronze medals were awarded, Malaysia came back empty-handed.  The gold medals were  mostly by the Asian countries, although Iran led the pack with the full score of five gold medalists. The list of  gold medals won by the various countries are: Iran (5),  Korea (4), China (4),  Taiwan (3), Indonesia (3),  Russia (3),  Hungary (3), Azerbaijan (3), Singapore (2), Georgia (2), and one each for Thailand, India, United Kingdom,  Canada, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. 

In the 13^th 2002 International Biology Olympiad held in Latvia last month,  the 16 gold medals were dominated by Asian countries, with China, Taiwan and Korea winning three each, Singapore and United Kingdom two each, while Thailand, Russia and Belarus winning one each. 

DAP calls for the  establishment of International Science Olympiads Council in Malaysia to prepare Malaysians to excel internationally in mathematics and sciences as an important step to transform the country into a power-house in these two subjects to prepare Malaysia for the challenges of globalization, liberalization and information and communications technology.

Parliament next month should amend the 10-year Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010 to incorporate as one of the national education objectives the quantum leap for Malaysia to become one of the top 10 nations in the world in excellence in mathematics and science, and an  all-party Parliamentary Committee should be set up to help achieve this objective.

(21/8/2002)