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SOUTH AFRICA
AND THE PAN AFRICAN AND INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIADS
John Webb
Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
University of Cape Town
A Report on the First Symposium on the
Pan African Mathematics Olympiad
Kairouan, Tunisia, 31 October - 6 November 2000
South Africa's role in helping to improve African participation in the International Mathematical Olympiad and the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad is discussed.
A Mathematical Renaissance in Africa
Mathematics was born in Africa. A notched calendar stick over 35000 years old, discovered recently in the Lebombo mountains, is the oldest mathematical artefact known. Written mathematics is first found in Africa, in the papyri of the pyramid-builders of ancient Egypt between four and five thousand years ago. And mathematics reached its full maturity as a rigorous axiomatic subject in Alexandria over two thousand years ago.
Africa needs to reclaim its position at the forefront of the world's mathematical stage.
1. Background
1.1 The International Mathematical Olympiad
The first International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) was held in 1959 in Romania, and for some years was predominantly an event for countries of the Soviet Bloc. In the 1970s the IMO was expanded to include Western and other countries.
South Africa has taken part in the IMO every year since 1992. Initially South African teams did not perform well. Since 1994, however, South African teams have produced good results. At the IMO in Korea in July 2000 the South African team of six won four Bronze Medals and an Honourable Mention, and was ranked 27th out of 82 countries. It is noteworthy that South Africa was above all Western European countries, except Germany (21st) and Great Britain (22nd). A report on IMO2000 appeared in Mathematical Digest 121 (October 2000) pp. 8-9.
Only four African countries have ever taken part in the IMO: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa. Of these, only Morocco and South Africa are regular participants. The lack of African participation has for some years been a cause for concern for the IMO Advisory Board.
At the IMO in Korea in July 2000, I was elected to the position of Secretary of the IMO Advisory Board, and have set myself the goal of increasing African participation in the IMO.
1.2 The Pan African Mathematics Olympiad
The Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO) is an annual event organised by the African Mathematical Union (AMU), and the first PAMO was held in 1988. South Africa became a member of the AMU in 1995, and I was made a member of the AMU Commission on PAMO.
In January 2000 the Tenth Pan African Mathematics Olympiad was held in Cape Town. The Olympiad was linked to the four-yearly Pan African Congress of Mathematicians (PACOM), held at the University of the Western Cape. This was the first time that South Africa had taken part in PAMO. A detailed account of the event was published in the journal Mathematical Competitions 13(1) 2000, pp. 80-89.
Professor Claude Deschamps (France), President of the IMO Advisory Board, was invited to attend PAMO as an observer. He chaired a discussion in PACOM on how to improve participation by African countries in both PAMO and the IMO.
As a direct result of the discussions at PACOM, Professor Nouzha El Yacoubi (Morocco), Chairperson of the AMU Commission on PAMO, organised the First Symposium on the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad. The Symposium was held in Kairouan, Tunisia, from 31 October to 6 November 2000. Attendance was by invitation. With substantial support from the Tunisian government and corporate support from both Tunisian and international companies, there were no conference or accommodation fees. Delegates had only to find support for their travel expenses to and from Tunis.
My attendance at the Symposium was made possible by a travel grant from the National Research Foundation.
2. The PAMO Symposium
Kairouan, the oldest Islamic city in Africa, is situated 160 km south of Tunis. With many historic buildings, Kairouan is a popular tourist attraction that has not yet been invaded by the hamburger and pizza parlours which abound in the Tunisian coastal resorts. Hand-knotted carpets, brass and leather work make browsing in the souk (market) a most relaxing occupation. The Symposium took place in the five-star Hotel El Kasbah, built within the walls of the old kasbah (fortress) of the city. The facilities were very comfortable. The programme included a half-day walking tour of Kairouan and a full-day excursion by bus to the coastal resorts of Habeul, Hammamet and Korbous Hot Springs.
Twelve African countries were represented at the Symposium: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
Invited delegates from non-African countries played a significant part in the deliberations of the Symposium. They included Professor Deschamps (mentioned above) and Professor Joszef Pelikan (Hungary), who is a member of the IMO Advisory Board. Andre Deledicq (France), who runs a highly successful French mathematical competition that attracts over 1.8 million entries, was invited, as was Professor Francesco Bellot Rosado of Spain, who directs the Mediterranean Mathematical Olympiad.
From the United States, the next host country for the IMO, came Professors John Kenelly and Walter Mientka, respectively President and Executive Director of IMO2001. Professor Mientka is also Executive Director of the American Mathematics Competition and USA Mathematics Olympiad. Professors Deschamps, Pelikan, Kenelly and Mientka hold prominent positions in the IMO and in the national mathematical associations of their home countries. They were therefore able to give advice to the Symposium based on years of experience in the organization of mathematical competitions and Olympiads at all levels.
The Symposium discussions ranged over all aspects of mathematical competitions and Olympiads, including organisation, financing events, and setting and marking Olympiad problems. PAMO is fairly closely modelled on the IMO, and there was general agreement that PAMO procedures should where necessary be modified to conform more closely to the procedures and practices that have proved so successful in running the IMO for the past 40 years. In this respect, the advice given on a range of issues to the Symposium by Professors Deschamps and Pelikan was particularly valuable.
Donald Cook, representing the Computer Society of South Africa, attended the Symposium in order to explore the possibility of developing a Pan-African Computer/Informatics Olympiad.
The current President of the African Mathematical Union, Professor Jan Persens (South Africa), proposed an important initiative. In a keynote address, he pointed out that the African Mathematical Union divides Africa into five regions for its activities and suggested that each of these regions try to organise regional competitions and Olympiads that could serve as stepping stones to PAMO and the IMO.
A possible model for regional Olympiads across Africa was provided by Professor Francesco Bellot Rosado, who for many years has been involved in the Ibero-American Mathematics Olympiad, an event for Spain, Portugal and the Hispanic countries of South and Central America. More recently, Professor Bellot Rosada has launched the Mediterranean Mathematics Olympiad.
Professor Joszef Pelikan led a session in which he discussed Hungary's achievements in the IMO. With a population of only 10 million, Hungary is ranked in the top ten countries every year in the IMO. Professor Pelikan, who as a schoolboy was a member of the Hungarian IMO team for four years in a row, and has been Hungarian Team Leader since 1988, set out three components essential for a country's programme if it is to achieve success in an IMO:
· a national Mathematical Olympiad
· a mathematical journal for high school students
· an Olympiad training programme.
In response, the delegates of the African countries were asked to describe their positions. It turned out that most of the countries present have already developed the first and third of Professor Pelikan's components. Only Tunisia and South Africa have all three.
My personal contribution to the Symposium took several forms.
· I described the University of Cape Town's programme of mathematical enrichment activities for high schools (the publication of Mathematical Digest, the organization of the UCT Mathematics Competition, and the Mathematical Talent Search).
· I outlined South Africa's programme for identifying and training teams for the IMO.
· I took part in a plenary discussion of how best to adapt PAMO procedures to improve accessibility to the IMO.
· I attended a meeting of the AMU Commission on PAMO, chaired by Professor El Yacoubi, to reformulate the PAMO Regulations and Procedures in accordance with the discussions and resolutions of the plenary sessions. The Regulations are to be completely revised, and produced in both French and English. I have been given the responsibility of producing the English version.
· With four of the eight members of the IMO Advisory Board at the Symposium (Professors Deschamps, Pelikan, Mientka and myself) we were able to have several useful informal discussions on IMO matters. These included the protocols of issuing invitations to new IMO participants, and ways of finding financial support for African countries. I was able to discuss my duties as incoming Advisory Board Secretary with the outgoing Secretary, Professor Mientka.
· I was able to establish personal contact with those delegates who are the leaders of the Olympiad programmes in their countries, and to arrange to continue contacts through email, mail and fax.
It was generally agreed that PAMO should be used by African countries as a stepping stone to the IMO. In this respect a major difficulty in the past has been the timing of PAMO. With one exception (Cape Town in 2000) PAMO has been held in August each year, usually one or two weeks after the IMO. This practice makes it difficult for a country to take part in both events. Indeed, only Morocco has ever taken part in both PAMO and the IMO in the same year, and then only when PAMO has been held in Morocco itself. I proposed that PAMO should be held in April rather than August, and was pleased when this proposal received unanimous support. It may not be possible to implement this decision in 2001 (arrangements to hold PAMO in Burkino Faso in 2001 are already well in hand), but the change will be made the following year, when PAMO will take place in Senegal.
Given that there are over 50 African countries, PAMO has never been well attended. Although between 15 and 20 African countries have taken part in PAMO at one time or another, the average attendance is seven countries, as in South Africa in 2000. The principal reason is clearly financial. This is the fundamental problem to be addressed in increasing PAMO and IMO participation.
3. Financing PAMO
The financing of the IMO and PAMO follow the same principles: the host country agrees to pay all the expenses of the visiting teams, who therefore only have to find the cost of their air tickets between their home country and the host country. Hosting PAMO places a heavy financial responsibility on the host country, and the organizational infrastructure of the host country may be severely stretched.
For the visiting teams, the cost of five air tickets (a Team Leader and four students) is a significant expense, since an air ticket from one African centre to another can cost as much as a ticket from Africa to anywhere else in the world.
Professor John Kenelly, President of the USA Committee for IMO2001, suggested a fundraising method which African countries might employ in raising money for them to attend IMO2001 in the United States. The key step is to identify American companies with a corporate presence and stake in their country, and then to approach the US corporate headquarters for support. African-American pressure groups in the United States could be useful allies in this respect.
It is hoped that funding will be available from the USA to ensure the presence of a significant number of observers from African countries at the IMO in 2001.
The next three International Mathematical Olympiads will take place in the USA (2001), Great Britain (2002) and Japan (2003), three of the richest countries in the world. There are promising signs that significant support may be available for increasing participation in PAMO and the IMO in the near future.
The French government, through the efforts of Professor Deschamps, is already committed to playing a significant role in PAMO. The next PAMO will be held in July 2001 in Burkina Faso. Professor Deschamps informed the Symposium that the French Embassy in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, will be assisting with the organisation of the Olympiad, and he himself will attend PAMO as a member of host country's organising committee. The holding of PAMO in Senegal in 2002 will be similarly supported.
4. The South African contribution
South Africa should commit itself to strong support of PAMO. It has a sound mathematical infrastructure, a good track record in Olympiads, and is the richest country in Africa.
· South Africa must send a team every year without fail to PAMO. South Africa's absence would give a clear message to the rest of Africa that PAMO is not worthy of support.
· South Africa must encourage its immediate neighbours (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique) to take part in PAMO and the IMO. The encouragement must be accompanied by tangible support. We are well placed to give practical advice to our neighbours on running local mathematical competitions and Olympiad training programmes.
· The proposal of AMU President Jan Persens to establish regional Olympiad activities across Africa should be implemented in Southern Africa. For the last three years South Africa has involved neighbouring countries in its IMO training programme by inviting small groups of students and teachers from Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe to take part in the annual Mathematical Camp at the University of Stellenbosch.
· South Africa must be prepared to host PAMO in any year when another host country cannot be found and there is a danger that PAMO will not take place.
4. PAMO and the development of mathematics in South Africa
South Africa's vigorous participation in a programme to promote PAMO should not be seen only in terms of outreach to help our neighbours. PAMO affords a valuable opportunity to inspire an interest in high achievement in mathematics in South African schools. It is internationally recognised that mathematical competitions and Olympiads are the most cost-effective means of promoting interest and high achievement in mathematics in our schools.
The complete vision is that of a national Talent Search and Olympiad training programme for South Africa with a substantial internal development component and a series of attainable goals at increasing levels:
· local and regional events in South Africa, leading into a national Olympiad
· regional events for Southern African, leading into the Pan African Mathematical Olympiad
· A high-level training programme, including South Africa's immediate neighbours, for teams selected for the International Mathematical Olympiad.
The first part of this programme is already fully operational. The third part is also in place, and needs only to be expanded by inviting South Africa's neighbours to join in. It remains to fill in the gap and fully support participation in the Pan-African Mathematical Olympiad. It is in the interests of South Africa, the Southern African region, and the rest of Africa, that we pursue this goal with vigour.
A number of mathematics teachers and university mathematicians in South Africa are already committed to using mathematical competitions and Olympiads to promote interest in mathematics and to identify and develop the natural ability of mathematically promising pupils. The corporate sector is already providing funding for a range of programmes.
5. The need for official recognition
What is now needed is support by government in the form of official recognition of these activities. Of all countries taking part in the IMO, only the South Africa team does not have the official endorsement of its government. For future participation in PAMO such official approval will be essential. Participation in PAMO involves working through government departments in other African countries. Official invitations to take part in PAMO are sent out from the host country's Education Ministry to the Education Ministries of participating countries.
With the admission of South Africa to the African Mathematical Union and the election of a South African, Professor Jan Persens, to the position of President of the AMU, South Africa is set to play an important role in the development of mathematics on the continent. The Chairperson of the AMU Commission on PAMO, Professor Nouzha El Yacoubi, has made a strong plea for South African commitment to increase participation in PAMO.
If South Africa fails to take an interest in PAMO and turns its back on this important African activity, it will be sending out the unfortunate message to the rest of the continent that there is no hope that Africa can ever measure up to international standards in the mathematical world.
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