Over 50 years of participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad, 288 Vietnamese students have won 271 medals.

Based on unofficial team performance, the Vietnamese team has been in the top 10 in the world in most of the years they have competed.

Professor Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences , who has led the Vietnamese student delegation to the IMO for 10 years, said that from 2013 to 2024, Vietnam ranked between 5th and 15th. In 2017 alone, Vietnam achieved its best performance ever (ranking third in the world), with 4 Gold medals, 1 Silver medal, and 1 Bronze medal.

According to Professor Vinh's statistics, if we consider the total number of gold medals won by Vietnamese teams at the IMO, Vietnam ranks 8th in the world with 69 gold medals. With 48 participations, the average number of gold medals won is 1.44 per year. Specifically for the period 2013-2024, Vietnam ranked 5th in the world with an average of 1.92 gold medals per year (a total of 23 gold medals). During this period, 5 out of every 10 Vietnamese contestants in history won 2 gold medals.

"This is a very encouraging rate. However, if we look at the development of mathematics in the region, in the last 10 years, Thailand has also won 21 gold medals and Singapore 19. With the current approach, these countries will not lag behind Vietnam," Professor Vinh commented.

According to Professor Vinh, Vietnam's achievements place it in the second group globally (top 5-15). The top four countries are China, the United States, South Korea, and Russia.

To compete with top teams, Vietnam needs to learn from their team selection process. These countries have extremely complex and time-consuming selection processes for their final teams, involving many rounds and levels. In contrast, Vietnam's selection process is very simple (round 1 is city-level, round 2 is national competition, and round 3 is team selection, with two exercises in each round).

"Our great success is based on our system of specialized schools spread across provinces and cities. However, compared to the top four countries, there is a large gap in the selection process. If we want to compete with the top countries, we need to think and make further improvements," Professor Vinh said.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau, Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Mathematics, shared: “I am very pleased with the achievements we have made, especially the unity and solidarity among the Vietnamese mathematical community both domestically and internationally. I am also happy about the government's attention and the fact that mathematics remains one of the favorite subjects among young people.”

However, he also had some pressing questions, such as how to make the movement to learn mathematics more sustainable and widespread? How to make mathematics and other basic subjects a voluntary choice for young people?

“We talk a lot about training human resources for artificial intelligence and semiconductors – mastering these technologies. But how can we master them if the time allocated to mathematics and perhaps many other basic subjects is reduced, both at the high school and university levels? In this age of information explosion and artificial intelligence, I believe we need to avoid cramming more new knowledge, and instead return to the fundamentals, to the basic principles of reasoning and thinking,” Professor Chau said.

Professor Chau argues that society should not only view the study of mathematics in terms of questions like: "What's the point of studying so much math?"; "Why use the budget to benefit a small group of students?" or consider it "training fighting cocks," but should recognize its greater value.

The professor compared the International Mathematical Olympiad to football: "Everyone wants the Vietnamese football team to win a gold medal, for example at the Asian level, and the whole country would erupt in joy. Clearly, the results achieved bring social values ​​and demonstrate Vietnam's strength. When Vietnamese students win awards in the international mathematics competition, it creates joy and encouragement."

The important thing is that if the general level of math skills among Vietnamese people improved, the face of the country would change. Every day, each person faces many decisions; simply knowing which "variables" are unimportant or being able to calculate probabilities would allow us to make more rational decisions.

Professor Chau also addressed the opinion that: 'Why should we use the budget to benefit a small group of students?' He said: "It's true that gifted students will receive better care. But if a country has around 1,000 to 10,000 students who are very good at math, I think the future of science and technology in the country will be different within the next 20 years. This is a worthwhile investment for the future of the country and we shouldn't only think about investing in students to participate in the IMO," Professor Chau shared.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son emphasized that "to grow tall, you must nurture from the roots" and stated that the Ministry is very aware that to develop science and technology, it must start from very basic fields including Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry from the secondary school level to university.

"However, it's regrettable that only about 25.6% of students from specialized high schools choose STEM-related majors at the university level, which is lower than the national average (31%). Of course, specialized high schools also have social science classes, but I believe the STEM-related programs in these schools should be much larger. This is a point we need to consider," Mr. Son said.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau and the story of how he once spent an entire afternoon trying to solve a math problem without success.

During the book launch seminar, Professor Ngo Bao Chau shared with young people about his passion and approach to learning mathematics. "In elementary school, mathematics wasn't my first choice of subject. But failing the entrance exam for a specialized mathematics program changed my mind," the professor said.

Members of the Vietnamese team explain why their results at the International Mathematical Olympiad were not as expected.

Members of the Vietnamese team, along with their teacher who served as an observer at the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad, shared the reasons why this year's results were not as good as expected.

From an exam requiring a review of the grading to a Silver Medal at the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad.

Tran Duy (12th grade Math 1, Hanoi University of Education High School for Gifted Students) won a Silver Medal at the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad. Few people know that Duy had to appeal his results in the national excellent student competition to have the opportunity to compete internationally.