Some Chinese people are still in shock days after the U.S. team claimed title in the 56th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) after beating China, which has long been dominant in world math competitions.
Many people attributed the loss to this year's national education reforms that no longer grant students bonus points on their college entrance examinations, or gaokao, for winning academic Olympiads.
Chinese people's enthusiasm for Mathematical Olympiad (MO) can be dated back to the 1990s when top universities and high schools selected students partially based on their performances in academic competitions. Thus many parents scrambled to enter their children in these events to help them get into prestigious schools, which led to a booming MO training market.
The MO training industry generated nearly 200 million yuan ($32 million) in revenue in 2012, according to the China Radio International.
The new reforms aimed at making education less exam-oriented in China seem to have put an end to high school students' math frenzy, but MO training centers are still thriving as top high schools still openly or half-openly consider students' math competition results in their admissions despite repeatedly being told not to by the education authorities.
Targets shifting to pupils
Several academic training centers in Beijing reached by the Global Times said that they have cancelled or reduced the number of high school-level MO classes, but added that they have opened more classes for primary school students as young as 6.
"Suddenly no high school students applied for MO classes after the reforms were announced last year, and we had to cancel all three classes," said a teacher surnamed Chen from a Beijing-based MO training center. The center now only offers one-on-one MO training for high school students at their homes, but so far they have received no bookings for this service.
MO training for pupils has continued to soar in popularity however.
A father whose daughter this May gained entry to a top high school in Haidian district told the Global Times that he started sending his daughter to MO and English training centers two years ago.
Most top high schools are located in the city's Haidian, Dongcheng and Xicheng districts, but Li's family lives in Daxing district, which has a shortage of good schools.
"Good performance in math competitions and English proficiency tests were the only stepping stones for my daughter to study in Haidian district, which has so many excellent high schools," Li said.
"I sent her to training centers because some parents said some training centers could recommend outstanding students to top high schools," Li said.
Another Beijing MO training center teacher surnamed Rong said that most parents send their children to the center when they are in grade four or five, and added that some grade four summer classes are almost sold out. A 10-day summer MO training course costs around 3,000 yuan in total.
The center even sets up special classes for grade six students. For example, "Tsinghua University High School class" is for students who plan to apply to the prestigious Tsinghua University High School, and the teachers help students prepare for the admission tests based on the school's examination papers from previous years, Rong said.
Big cities like Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou have also witnessed a boom in the MO training market targeting primary school students.
An MO teacher surnamed Guo at a Chongqing-based training center claimed that they have connections with several local top high schools.
"In the past years, we would organize MO tests for our students, and the top high schools would come to our centers and select best students based on the test results," Guo said.
In the 1990s, many big cities abolished entrance exams for junior high schools and adopted the admission system of allocating students based on their residency status. Since then, education authorities at all levels have banned high schools from organizing admission tests and recruiting students based on their performance in math competitions.
But some prestigious schools still divide their admission process into several rounds to get around the residency-based allocation system, as they will reserve some places for students that excel at the first round entrance exams.
Not for all
Some education experts believed that only 5 percent of the students in China are "suitable" to participate in MO, as it requires both talent and passion.
"MO studies require talent in abstract, logical thinking and other abilities that are natural gifts," Xie Changzhi, 18, a member of the Chinese IMO team this year told news portal thepaper.cn.
Chinese students spend a lot of time to prepare for MO, but very few become math masters in the end, and paying too much attention to MO creates an illusion that "MO is for everyone," which only increases the burden on students and means they cannot cultivate their own interests, Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, posted on his Weibo microblog.
"It's not normal when 90 percent of students choose MO without caring about their own interests, and the education reforms which removed the bonus points to counter the 'MO is for everyone' attitude is logical and appropriate," Xiong said.
In Li's eyes, the imbalances between the resources available to different districts should be blamed for his daughter being forced to study MO, and he says he won't make her to do it in high school, as "math is really not her thing."
Li is now renting an apartment and moving his family to Haidian district, although it means he and his wife will both have to spend four extra hours commuting every day.
"I feel my daughter is one step closer to first-tier universities, and that's the most important thing," he said.
