South African girls not invited to world cup?

26-06-2014 | Johannesburg | MGLI

Bring our South African girls now!

The World Cup has seen its fair share of drama, from cannibalism to shock defeats. Brazil

has been the epicentre of the world’s attention as nations battle it out for soccer honours.

Now to divert your attention from the “so-called” beautiful game, I hereby re-announce the

imminent arrival of maths geeks from all over the world to participate in the annual

International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) to be held at the University of Cape Town (UCT)

from 3 - 13 July. Now this is the world cup of mathematics that will see geniuses going head

to head for maths bragging rights. The South African team is ready to take on the world and

I hope that, like in soccer home advantage will favour them. I am not sure how but am

crossing my fingers that our South African geniuses will not perform dismally like Bafana

Bafana in 2010 (Specifying 2010 is for delimitation of scope as Bafana Bafana are known to

be perennial strugglers).

The IMO is a problem-solving contest for high school learners, held in a different country in July every year. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959, with seven countries taking part. Today, more than 100 countries take part, representing over 90% of the world's population. The IMO is the oldest, biggest and most prestigious of all the international science Olympiads. 2014 is the first time it is being held on African soil.

The 2014 IMO is presented by the South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) and will take place at the University of Cape Town. The event is endorsed by the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa.

The South African team is composed of:

- Tae Jun Park, Grade 11, Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town

- Sanjiv Ranchod, Grade 10, Westerford High School in Cape Town

- Bronson Rudner, Grade 10, South African College High School in Cape Town

- Robin Visser, Grade 12, St George's Grammar School in Cape Town

- Nashlen Govindasamy, Grade 12, Star College in Durban

- Yaseen Mowzer, Grade 10, Fairbairn College in Cape Town

We wish our geniuses the best at these prestigious games. Looking at the team has got me

asking more questions that I do not necessarily have answers for. Below is a high-level

descriptive statistical analysis of the team composition for the benefit of those who cannot

already get my drift.

- 100% of the contestants are boys (the rest are girls).

- 83% of contestants are from Cape Town (the rest are from Durban).

- 0% are African

- 67% are Indian/Asian

- 33% are White

- 0% are Coloured

- 50% are in Grade 10

- 33% are in Grade 12

- 17% are in Grade 11

- 0% are from township schools

- 0% are from rural schools

These figures show that there is not enough diversity in the South African team. Without

pointing fingers at anyone or any institution, it is worthwhile that comprehensive studies be

undertaken to ascertain the key drivers of this inequality and how the situation can be

rectified. Are we saying that there are no girls, Coloured and Africans who can make it into

the team? Is it a case of selection bias? Is the competition equally accessible to all? What

has been done to address the imbalance in South African maths Olympiad participation? Is

Western Cape the only province that is serious about the maths Olympiad? What are the

strategies of the other provinces to catch up? Has enough been done to publicise this

particular event so as to ignite the passion for maths in youngsters? I could go on with my

questions but they are too many and it is of no use as I do not have the answers.

I disaggregated the team composition data using gender, location, grade and school-type.

My main concern is the exclusion or discouragement of girls is not only limited to Olympiads

but conventional STEMI (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation)

subjects. It is high time every institution take stock and come up with comprehensive

policies and practices that do not short-sell the girl. How has the SAMF and the Department

of Basic Education facilitated the entry of girls into the South African Maths World Cup

team? Are girls not invited to the party? On a daily basis we are preaching that girls can do

STEMI but on the ground real change is not forthcoming. Let us evaluate our modus

operandi and change the girl child’s fate in life. It is my hope that in the not so distant future

South Africa will have balanced representation featuring girls from rural areas.

The event serves as a platform for South African learners to benchmark their performance against international standards. It is paramount that the event be publicised so as to motivate learners and teachers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to take up the challenge to form maths Olympiad clubs in their schools and communities. This could be the trigger for a mathematically savvy country if marketed to all strata of the South African population.

Is the South African maths Olympiad team going to be a pushover in the competition? How can the country use the event to bolster mathematical performance? What is the strategy to get the rural black child involved in the competition?

The South African team is currently not representative of the country’s demographics as most black teachers do not have the skills to teach Olympiad-type problem solving. It is an unwritten pre-requisite that a teacher ought to have done at least second year BSc in Mathematics and is a good, creative problem solver. This has led to teachers shying away from the competition and the learner is the biggest loser in all this.

To help correct this, MGLI in ran a maths Olympiad tutorial in Midrand as part of its overall strategy to nurture talented quantitative leaders who will use mathematics as a springboard for general problem solving. The maths Olympiad is a conduit for African leadership capacity building as Africa has to solve her own problems using home-grown talent.

Beneficiaries of the MGLI maths Olympiad training include Gallagher Combined School and The African Union International School (AUIS). In the tutorials, learners were taught how to think like mathematicians in order to be good problem solvers. Once the learners had grasped the different problem solving strategies, Olympiad past exam papers were introduced and learners were fully engaged and owned the process of solving them. The SABC Education sponsored book, “The Mathematical Genius in You” by mathematician Edzai Zvobwo was distributed to the learners as a tool to improve their problem solving capabilities. It was a successful exercise that presented learners and teachers with unconventional mathematics problems yet proved that any problem can be solved if addressed correctly.

For sustainability, it is necessary that a broader strategy to up-skill teachers be adopted with the assistance of crowd-sourced expertise from the community. A lot of engineers, actuaries, chartered accountants, programmers have a fair appreciation of maths Olympiad-type problems and their expertise can be harnessed for the benefit of the black learner.

Let us all wish the South African team all the best in the World Cup and hope they will do us proud. Bring back gold, do it for your country.

Edzai C. Zvobwo is the CEO of MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI). He is a renowned

mathematics researcher and motivational author. He can be contacted at

info@mathsgenius.co.za