How much has Malaysia done 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?

Here are 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 43rd 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:

Ranking Country Total Score
1. China 212
2. Russia 204
3. USA 171
4. Bulgaria 167
5. Vietnam 166
6. Korea 163
7. Taiwan 161
8. Romania 157
9. India 156
10. Germany 144
11. Iran 143
12. Canada 142
13. Hungary 142
14. Turkey 135
15. Belarus 135


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

China
Gold 6
Silver -
Bronze -
Total 6

Korea
Gold 1
Silver 5
Bronze -
Total 6

India
Gold 1
Silver 3
Bronze 2
Total 6


Japan
Gold 1
Silver 3
Bronze 1
Total 5

Taiwan
Gold 1
Silver 4
Bronze 1
Total 6

Vietnam
Gold 3
Silver 1
Bronze 2
Total 5

Singapore
Gold 0
Silver 2
Bronze 2
Total 4

Thailand
Gold 0
Silver 2
Bronze 2
Total 4

Indonesia
Gold 0
Silver 0
Bronze 1
Total 1

Hong Kong
Gold 1
Silver 2
Bronze 1
Total 5

Malaysia
Gold 0
Silver 0
Bronze 0
Total 0

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:

IMO Malaysia’s Country score

1998 32
1999 37
2000 32
2001 36
2002 26

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.

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

In the 33rd 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 13th 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.

Oleh : Abu Yusof

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Terbitan : 26 Ogos 2002

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