UK maths prodigy sets out to prove his worth at international Olympiad
16-year-old mathlete Joe Benton travels with UK team to Thailand next
week to battle, against the odds, the powerhouses of China, USA and
Taiwan.
“I’ve always been interested in maths, since I can remember,” says
16-year-old Joe Benton. “I find it elegant. I really enjoy the kick you
get when you solve a problem, when it’s something you’ve been thinking
of as impossible for a long time, and it suddenly becomes obvious. That
‘a-ha’ moment – it’s fun.”
Joe is one of six gifted young mathematicians chosen for the British team who will compete next week in the 56th International Mathematical Olympiad
(IMO) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The IMO is the world cup of mathematics
competitions for secondary school-age students. It began in 1959 with
seven countries competing in Bucharest, Romania. Now, it’s a global
event with more than 500 teenagers from over 100 countries.
Like the Olympics, competitors win individual medals but also compete
as a national team. The event has its own flag and even its own hymn:
“Gathered in one desire / We are coming from everywhere / To share the
joy of joining / Science and art in one / We add, we multiply / And we
come to a total / Infinite is our dream / With no measure indeed / We
shall meet again / Solving the problems / To think is our way /
Friendship our system is.”
Teams from as far afield as Afghanistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Syria
and Mongolia, Macau, Cuba, Cambodia and Iran will descend on Chiang Mai
University for the opening ceremony on Thursday. Then on Friday morning
Joe and the rest of the British team, fresh from a last-minute training
camp in Malaysia, will take their seats alongside their rivals in a vast
examination hall. The test lasts four and a half hours and is made up
of three problems, each more difficult than the last. The next day the
competitors will do the same again.
“The time flies,” says Joe. “You sit there and you think. You have an
idea and you try it and you work from there. There’s some anxiety, but
that comes mostly after you’ve sat the exams and you’re waiting for the
results.”
Joe’s state primary school worked hard to keep up with his appetite
for maths; his secondary, St Paul’s independent school in Barnes,
south-east London, has an established tradition of entering pupils in
maths competitions.
His gift was soon spotted by the UK Mathematics Trust,
which runs contests in schools to scout for talent, and when Joe was 14
he enrolled in a summer camp for exceptionally talented young
mathematicians.
Since then he has attended training camps and last year he was chosen
to represent the UK at the IMO in Cape Town, where he won a silver
medal as part of a team that came 20th overall (the top three was China,
USA and Taiwan).
“There are obviously countries that are stronger – China, America,
Russia,” Joe says philosophically. “It’s natural because of the
population size and they put a lot more effort into it as nations.”
This year Joe, whose father works for IBM and whose mother is a
geneticist, is hoping for gold. “It always works best when you’re
enjoying it,” he says. In the runup he’s been doing one or two problems a
day, gradually building up as the competition approaches.
“Sometimes I sit at my desk. Sometimes I lie on my bed and stare at
the ceiling, trying to think. Sometimes I watch the TV and I’m
thinking.”
Last year, the little-known world of the IMO was the backdrop for a well-reviewed feature film, X+Y,
starring Asa Butterfield as a mathematics prodigy who has difficulty
understanding people but is very good with numbers. He represents the UK
at the IMO, during which there’s a romantic encounter with a fellow
competitor, a Chinese girl called Zhang Mei.
The film triggered much debate among the world’s best young
mathematicians, both for its portrayal of a gifted young “mathlete” on
the autistic spectrum and its love interest. In reality “there’s not
much romance”, says Joe’s teammate Warren Li, 17, an IMO veteran with
two competitions under his belt.
Indeed, there aren’t many girls. Only 10% of all competitors are
female, a situation that organisers are trying to address with the
launch of girls-only international contests such as the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad.
It’s not because of a lack of female talent, says the UK team leader Dr Geoff Smith, of Bath University (played by Eddie Marsan in the film). “Girls can do this. Sometimes the best young mathematician in the world is a girl.”
Lisa Sauermann, from Germany, was the most successful participant in the 2011 IMO and currently ranked second in the IMO hall of fame; last year Maryam Mirzakhani,
an Iranian former IMO gold medal winner and now a maths professor,
became the first woman to win the world’s most prestigious mathematics
prize, the Fields Medal.
On the film’s portrayal of maths prodigies, Smith says: “There has
been a natural concern in the maths community that portraying some
mathematicians as being less than socially fluent is dangerous, because
it could lead to the misapprehension that mathematicians are all
strange.
“My personal view is that the prefix ‘mis’ in the previous sentence
can be deleted. All mathematicians are strange because they place such
an exceptional value on thought, ideas and understanding. I think that
the maths community should be proud of the way it embraces people on the
basis of their enthusiasm for, and interest in, mathematics.
“Most students are relaxed and outgoing, with the full set of skills
that allow them to prosper in the teenage social maelstrom. Some others
are not, but everyone gets along almost all of the time, united by a
passion for ideas and ingenuity.”
Each year the UK team is made up of students from a mix of state and
independent schools, selective and non-selective. Despite concern among
politicians about the overall maths performance of UK pupils in
international Pisa tests (Britain ranked 26th in maths out of 65 countries most recently), we hold our own in the IMO.
“For our population, we do reasonably well,” says Smith. “The
south-east Asian teams tend to dominate. In the last 10 years China,
Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan have been very strong.
Kids there are expected to put a lot more effort into their school work
and academic achievement is more highly prized. Europeans have made a
cultural decision that they don’t want to do that. Their idea of
childhood is much less driven.”
Smith says the diligence required to master a GCSE or A-level
syllabus in maths bears little relation to the sort of creativity and
brilliant insight required to excel in an IMO competition. “You can’t
teach that,” he says.
“The kids who eventually make the IMO team, they are so smart they
stand out like a sore thumb when they are 12, 13 or 14. It’s like the
difference between being an Olympic swimmer and being able to do a
width.”
Warren Li is definitely an “Olympic swimmer” and among the UK’s best
hopes for a gold this year. He aimed for gold last year but just missed
out. The other team members are Lawrence Hollom, Samuel Kittle, Neel
Nanda and Harvey Yau.
“I was probably not as well prepared as I could have been,” says
Warren, who studied at a York comprehensive before moving to Eton for
sixth form. “This year, I’m aiming for gold again, and this time I’m the
most experienced member of the UK team. Maybe I feel a little pressure
to be the best. But I really enjoy the whole process. It’s actually
fun.”
Are you a maths genius? Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris
Two IMO sample problems
The first was used at the IMO in 2001 and is free of the maths jargon that can hinder non-mathematicians (on the IMO website here):
21 girls and 21 boys took part in a mathematical contest.(i) Each contestant solved at most six problems.(ii) For each girl and each boy, at least one problem was solved by both of them.Prove that there was a problem that was solved by at least three girls and at least three boys.
And another from 2014 that uses more technical terms (on the IMO website here):
Let n² be an integer. Consider an n x n chessboard consisting of n² unit squares.A configuration of n rooks on this board is peaceful if every row and every column contains exactly one rook. Find the greatest positive integer k such that, for each peaceful configuration of n rooks, there is a k × k square which does not contain a rook on any of its k² unit squares.
The solutions are on the IMO website here. Good luck.
Religions: Christian 71.2% (Pentecostal/Charismatic 28.3%,
Protestant 18.4%, Catholic 13.1%, other 11.4%), Muslim 17.6%,
traditional 5.2%, other 0.8%, none 5.2% (2010 census)
Communications: Telephones: main
lines in use: 285,000 (2012); mobile cellular: 25.618 million (2012).
Broadcast media: state-owned TV station, 2 state-owned
radio networks; several privately-owned TV stations and a large number
of privately-owned radio stations; transmissions of multiple
international broadcasters are accessible; several cable and satellite
TV subscription services are obtainable (2007). Internet hosts:
59,086 (2012). Internet users: 1.297 million (2009).
Transportation: Railways: total: 947 km
(2008). Highways: total: 109,515 km; paved: 9,955 km; unpaved:
52,266 km (2009). Waterways: 1,293 km; note: 168 km for
launches and lighters on Volta, Ankobra, and Tano rivers; 1,125 km of
arterial and feeder waterways on Lake Volta (2011). Ports and
harbors: Takoradi, Tema. Airports: 10 (2013).
International disputes: disputed maritime border between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
BASIC FACTS ABOUT GHANA EDUCATION
DID YOU KNOW? That GHANA has in the public sector;
Primary Schools - 12,225
Junior High Schools - 6,418
senior high schools - 526
teacher training colleges - 38
technical institutes -23
public universities - 8
polytechnics -10
This is what the nation is using to serve 25 million people, which in addition with numerous private educational institutions makes it possible for every Ghanaian to get access to quality education. In the past decade 28% - 40% of the annual budget is spent on education.
Basic education
Basic Education is now 11 years made up of 2 years of Kindergarten, 6
years of Primary School, and 3 years of Junior High School (JHS). After
JHS, students may choose to go into different streams at Senior High
School (SHS), comprising General Education and Technical, Vocational and
Agricultural and Training (TVET) or enter into an apprenticeship scheme
with some support from the Government. Senior Secondary education
After basic school, pupils may enter senior high (or
technical/vocational) schools for a three-year course, which prepare
them for university education. Students usually study a combination of
three (in some cases, four) 'elective' subjects and a number of core
subjects. For example, a science student could study Elective
Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics as his 'elective' subjects.
An arts student might study Geography, Economics and Literature as his
elective subjects. In addition to the elective subjects, there are
'core' subjects, which are those studied by all students in addition to
their 'electives'. The 'core' subjects include Mathematics, English and
Science.
At the end of the three year senior secondary course, students are
required to sit for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate
Examinations (WASSCE). Students who obtain aggregate 36 or better (six
subjects) can enter the university. Usually, the score is determined by
aggregating the student's grades in his elective subjects. The aggregate
score is then added to the aggregate score of his best 'core' subjects,
with scores in English and Mathematics considered first.
So if an arts student scores 'A1' in Geography, 'B2' in Literature
and 'B3' in Economics, he'd obtain an aggregate score of 6 for his
electives (i.e. A1=1; B2=2 & B3=3...F9 (fail)=9). His best core
subjects are then added. If he obtains 'B2' in English, 'B3' in
Mathematics and 'A1' in Social Studies, his best 'core' aggregate will
be six. Therefore, his overall aggregate score will be 12 and he
qualifies for admission into a university. Once again, an overall
aggregate score of six is best. Tertiary education
Entrance to universities is by examination following completion of senior high school. Pass grade is C6 or better.
School enrolment is 98% totalling over 2 million. Education is mainly in English
NB: The educational system changed in Sept. 2007. It resulted in the change of name from secondary school to high school.
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As of 2012, 31 million primary-school pupils worldwide dropped out of school. An additional 32 million repeated a grade.
In the sub-Saharan, 11.07 million
children leave school before completing their primary education. In
South and West Asia, that number reaches 13.54 million.
While girls are less likely to
begin school, boys are more likely to repeat grades or drop out
altogether. Host a competitive book drive to benefit a shelter near you.
Sign up for Stacks on Stacks.
According to UNESCO, 61 million
primary school-age children were not enrolled in school in 2010. Of
these children, 47% were never expected to enter school, 26% attended
school but left, and the remaining 27% are expected to attend school in
the future.
Children living in a rural
environment are twice as likely to be out of school than urban children.
Additionally, children from the wealthiest 20% of the population are 4
times more likely to be in school than the poorest 20%.
In developing, low-income
countries, every additional year of education can increase a person’s
future income by an average of 10%.
Children who are born to educated
mothers are less likely to be stunted or malnourished. Each additional
year of maternal education also reduces the child mortality rate by 2%.
Women with a primary school
education are 13% more likely to know that condoms can reduce their risk
of contracting HIV/AIDS. An education can help decrease the spreading
of this virus by promoting safer sexual practices.
53% of the world’s out-of-school children are girls and 2/3 of the illiterate people in the world are women.
Education empowers women to make
healthy decisions about their lives. For example, women in Mali with a
secondary level education or higher have an average of 3 children, while
those with no education have an average of 7.
The youth literacy rates in South
America and Europe are among the highest with 90-100% literacy. The
African continent, however, has areas with less than 50% literacy among
children ages 18 and under.
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