Ban on enrollment based on math scores worries parents

While the fervor for the summer Olympic Games is ignited every four years, the fervor for Olympic math seems to be perennial among many Chinese parents, who have their children trained vigorously to compete in math exams so that their children can have better odds when applying to prestigious middle schools.

The fervor took a hit before the fall semester began on Monday, however. In August, the Beijing municipal government issued a ban on Olympic-style math competitions, the content of which is far more complicated than that taught at primary schools, for students in these schools.

Among others, the ban prohibits primary schools or private education institutions from offering such classes, as well as bans middle schools from selecting students based on their performance in math competitions. The government also vowed to "severely crack down" on any violations.

Though well-intended to relieve weary students from the burden of numerous Olympic math exercises after school, a long-time criticized aspect of China's exam-oriented education system, the ban has left out a problem: how to decide whose kids get into the only handful good schools.

China's nine-year compulsory education system covers primary school and another three years of junior middle school. No entrance tests are required for entrance into these schools. Students are assigned to schools according to where they live.

In reality, however, there are ways to get into good schools regardless of where one resides. Students who excel in certain subjects or display talents related to music or sports can sometimes obtain entrance to higher-tier middle schools. Other students use their parents' connections with authorities to gain access to better schools.

After the ban was announced, 30 schools in Beijing, including the prestigious No. 4 Middle School and Renmin University's affiliated middle school, signed written pledges to the city's educational agency promising to refrain from using math competition scores as a basis for recruitment.

However, new standards for enrollment have yet to be issued, leading many parents to worry that higher-quality schools may lose a fair means of evaluation by eliminating math competition scores.

The ban is not the first of its kind. A similar regulation was issued in 2005. In 2010, the Ministry of Education repealed a regulation allowed the winners of the Mathematics Olympiad to be recommended for admission to junior middle schools.

However, schools have found ways to get around previous bans. Private education institutions that offer extracurricular classes have moved to remove the words "Olympic math" from their advertisements and classroom decor.

At the Tianxingjian educational institution, a receptionist surnamed Li said new advertisements are being created that eliminate any mention of Olympic math classes, but admitted that the classes will continue to be held, albeit under different names.

"As shown by previous bans, Olympic math classes cannot be eliminated. Schools value students with Olympic math awards and grant them extra interviews during recruitment," he said.

The boom in Olympic math training started in 1998, when the city cancelled citywide entrance exams for junior middle schools and adopted the current system of allocating students to schools based on their residency. Parents scrambling to send their children to good schools turned to extracurricular classes in order to boost their children's chances for recruitment.

Xing Xiaoping, principal of the Zhongguancun Middle School, said in a report after the announcement of the ban that schools have to consider a wide variety of factors when recruiting, since there is no universal entrance exam for middle schools.

Some parents worry that good schools will look more at social connections and sponsorship fees when making admission decisions with the ban on Olympic math scores.

A mother of two children surnamed Wang said that although she strongly opposes the Olympic math fervor, she sympathizes with those parents who depend on the scores to guarantee a good spot for their children.

"I understand them well. They have been pinned their hopes on it, because their children cannot attend good schools without it. Suddenly, the ban came and I can only imagine what kind of impact it will have on them. At least the Olympic math tests are fair," she said.

Wang said she never pushed her own son to compete, as he has never expressed an interest in math and she does not believe it is worthwhile to force him to spend his youth studying something he is not interested in.

"It's always difficult to assess a child's abilities. We haven't seen the follow-up policies. Who knows what will happen. But it has to be fair," she said.