VietNamNet Bridge - ViOlympic, an online math competition for primary and secondary school students, has raised controversy among parents.

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The goal of the contest, as announced by the organization committee, is to promote the use of information technology in teaching and learning at schools, and create a healthy online playground for students to compete in math and physics.

It is described as a friendly environment for students to learn from each other.

However, many parents have raised their concern about the competition, saying that it is unhealthy competition and worsens the ‘achievement disease’.

ViOlympic, an online math competition for primary and secondary school students, has raised controversy among parents.
Le Dung said it took his son 30 minutes to solve questions. After checking, Dung discovered that with the result, his son ranked 147,000th in the country. 

The student, who ranked first, only needed 5 minutes and 47 seconds to solve the questions.

“This was an impossible mission for me. Eight rounds and four questions for each round! It’s awful!” he said. 

Dung believes the result could be obtained only if someone tried to do the same question many times.

This might happen if students registered to attend the contest many times under different names. As they know the questions, they would only have to spend time to click the mouse on the right answers.

“One needs 30-50 minutes for the first try and will need 10 minutes only for the 10th try,” he said. “But the result of 10 minutes doesn’t show real ability,” said Hoang Hoa Thuy, a parent in Cau Giay district.

“This is the manifestation of the so-called ‘achievement disease’. Parents force their children to play tricks to obtain the highest possible achievements,” she said. 

A math teacher in HCMC said he feels so surprised about the achievements of the students who lead the competition.

“They can solve the questions for one round just within two minutes. This is impossible,” he commented.

According to Nguyen Thi Ngoc from FPT University, head of ViOlympic project, 40 percent of questions are ‘easy’, 40 percent of questions are ‘medium difficult’ and the remaining 20 percent are ‘difficult’. In order to obtain 300 mark, students need to master comprehensive knowledge and have good skills in solving questions on computers.

Meanwhile, a high school teacher in Hanoi said it is not the competition to blame. “It is not the fault of the competition organizers who have tried to create a healthy playing field for students. It is the fault of parents who have turned the game into a competition for ‘fighting cocks’,” he said.


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