Maths contest adds up to 3 golds for Thai students

Some 800 primary and secondary students from 25 countries participated in the tournament, which started on Saturday.

The Thai gold medallists in the individual category of the primary level were Jettapol Thepauyporn, a sixthgrader from Anubal Nakhon Ratchasima School, and Kritameth Lengraksa, a fifthgrader at Bangkok Christian Wittayalai School.

Uthaipon Tantipongpipat, a ninthgrader from Bangkok Christian Wittayalai School, won his gold medal at the secondary level.

Other Thai primary students bagged eight silver and 14 bronze medals, while other Thai secondary students scooped 14 silvers and eight bronzes.

The team contest was divided into four groups. At the primary level, the four group winners were Taiwan (Team A), China (Team A), Hong Kong (Team A) and Indonesia (Team A). Overall, Team A of Taiwan ranked tops.

At the secondary level, Singapore placed first in two groups. The other group winners were Hong Kong and the Philippines. Overall, China's Affiliate Middle School to Ji Lin University team scored highest.

The three Thai gold medallists seemed to agree that practice makes perfect when it came to mathematics and that this year's questions were difficult, so their victory came as a nice surprise to them.

Jettapol, who aspires to become an engineer, said he had helped his grandmother sell goods since he was in kindergarten, so he liked maths. He urged teachers to make their maths classes interesting by playing games at least once a week and arranging extra classes for those weak at maths, which was what his school did. He also called on the Education Ministry to organise more maths contests.

Kritameth, who has won awards from domestic contests including the National Petch Yod Mongkut Competition, said he wanted to be a maths teacher.

Uthaipon said Thai education was good enough and it should not force students too much but let them choose practical subjects.

Benjalak Namfa, director of the Bureau of Academic and Educational Standards, said the Basic Education Commission was trying to make maths more interesting for kids by such ways as introducing more fun activities, like games or movies, as part of the teaching material.

She said the curriculum adjustment this year would emphasise the Thai language and mathematics at the Prathom 13 level to tackle the problem of Thai kids doing poorly at maths.