Academic Olympic wins don't tell whole story

Since 1991, senior secondary school students have brought home 336 medals from international academic Olympics. They demonstrated academic excellence in science and mathematics, but it seems the number of awards is going in the opposite direction of the country's overall competitiveness in these fields.

"This will take time," Pornpun Waitayangkoon, director of the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST), said recently.

IPST is the key agency responsible for taking local students to the world's prestigious competitions.

"One or two (winners of scholarships for studies) in the UK and the US are expected to return to Thailand in 2011 as the first group, after they receive their doctorates. Most of them will become lecturers at leading universities.

"We will have them work as researchers, too. Some will probably work as researchers for the National Science and Technology Development Agency," she said.

Thailand first sent student representatives to the International Academic Olympiad Competitions in 1991, beating students from around the world in five subjects - mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science. They have bagged 75 gold, 137 silver and 124 bronze medals. They also got 41 honourable mentions as well as an award for the best solution and an award for the best experiment.

With the internationally accepted performances, Thailand is honoured to host the 42nd International Physics Olympiad and 23rd International Computer Olympiad next year.

Yet, many questions were raised why, against the awards, the average scores of Thai students, as reflected in the Ordinary National Educational Test (Onet) for the five subjects, are low. In the international arena, as reflected through the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), Thailand's ranking is also low.

Pornpun noted that it's not IPST alone in the quest to drive scientific and mathematical excellence. The agency is just playing a supporting role to the national education policy in the care of the Education Ministry. Its role is limited to improving the quality of teachers in these areas and recruiting talented students for the Academic Olympiad.

Each year, IPST is allocated Bt80-Bt90 million from the government to organise academic camps to find and train cream-of-the-crop students in the country to represent Thailand, competing in the international academic competitions, she said.

The results so far have been impressive, she said. The competition has increased Thai students' interest in scientific learning. In 1991, when the training project started, only 9,290 students applied. This year, the programme has attracted about 52,000 students.

Before students are selected, they must be trained with advanced contents of those subjects, algorithms and problem-solving in the camps. This arouses their interest in mathematics and science and improves their knowledge.

Only 23 will be chosen to represent Thailand in the Academic Olympiad.

Although many fail, they have been trained under other projects of IPST.

"All these are carried out with the Bt90 million budget," she said.

The students can also apply for scholarships under IPST's Development and Promotion of Science and Technology Talents Project (DPST), under which they are educated to be researchers and creators, and Teacher Professional Development Project (TPDP), which turns them into proficient science and mathematics teachers.

"Medals are not the only important goal of our Academic Olympiads project, but it's better when the project can encourage more teenagers to study science and mathematics," she said.

Scholarships under DPST are available for 60 students to study at the senior secondary level and 120 students to study higher education in math and science yearly, while 580 TPDP scholarships are available for those to study higher education in math and science along with a graduate diploma in the teaching profession.

Upcountry students are now given more opportunities to participate in the camps after the Promotion of Academic Olympiads and Development of Science Education Foundation under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana had set up 20 centres across the country to recruit intelligent students for selection.

Since 2001, IPST has offered scholarships to more than 100 students who participated in the Academic Olympics, to further their under- and post-graduate education in the US, the UK and Germany in fields that Thailand is weak in, such as mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry and biology.

Ninety per cent of them received the scholarships while the rest have received scholarships from His Majesty the King to further their education abroad and study medicine locally.

From a total budget for IPST of Bt1.56 billion in the next fiscal year, 60 per cent will be allocated for scholarships with math and science talents and 40 per cent as a budget for R&D to produce good instructional media, improve curricula and run activities promoting math and science.

"This is a long-term investment. At least, some of the students who are not enlisted for the international competition are enrolled into scientific faculties in leading universities.

"As a matter of fact, we are just in the seventh year of the 20-year-long programme to produce new scientists for new research. Hopefully, this will yield a fruitful return when the programme ends. Education is not easy to achieve, it's not like just handing out scholarships."

While expecting the first doctors to return home, Pornpun is worried about how efficiently they can put their knowledge to full use. To support them, research budgets and good laboratories are required, aside from attractive salaries. Also, she observed that professional researchers do not quite enjoy high social praise like others, such as engineers.