National Olympiad in Informatics

By M. Nirmala

ANY STUDENT who wins a medal in the international science olympiads will automatically be offered direct admission to the science and engineering courses of the two universities here.

Regardless of their A-level results, they will be able to enrol at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), said Education Minister Lee Yock Suan yesterday.

"I hope that these students will eventually make their mark in R & D careers, and be future leaders in our R & D drive," he said.

Murmurs rippled through the NUS lecture theatre, and guests and students shifted in their seats and smiled.

This initiative is part of on-going efforts by the Government to attract the best and the brightest into science and engineering.

The direct admission plan will be the second to be offered.

Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the National Science Olympiad Council and prize-presentation ceremony.

Last year, university places were reserved for three students, the first winners of the National Science Talent Search Awards.

Two of them had not even taken their GCE A-level examinations.

The trio were guaranteed places in science and engineering courses at NUS, NTU and certain overseas universities, including New York University.

Of the change, Mr Lee, NUS deputy vice-chancellor Chong Chi Tat and science faculty dean Bernard Tan, said it was all right to introduce this policy as winners had survived a tough international event which attracted the best.

Mr Lee said that Oxbridge and other top universities took in some students on the basis of their academic performance throughout the year instead of just year-end examination results.

Associate Professor Tan added: "In fact, it's probably very much harder to win a medal in an international science olympiad than to meet the minimum admission criteria for science and engineering.

"I am the dean of science and that's saying something, you know.

"It is a marvellous feat to win a medal in any of these olympiads because you are up against the best young people in science from all over the world," he said.

The questions asked were very tough, he said, adding: "They are way, way above the normal questions.

"They are problems that are very tricky and formulated by the best brains in the world.

"People who have won medals have shown their mettle in problem-solving abilities."

Since 1988, Singapore has sent teams of four to six students to take part in gruelling two-day competitions in chemistry, physics, mathematics and informatics.

These students, mostly from the junior colleges and a few secondary schools, have to complete questions or practicals within four or five hours.

So far, Singapore's medal tally has been nine gold, 21 silver and 50 bronze.

Mr Lee also launched the National Science Olympiad Council yesterday.

Prof Chong heads this council, which includes senior officials from the Education Ministry, National Science and Technology Board, National Institute of Physics, among others.

It will have the same mission and responsibility in promoting science as the Singapore National Olympic Council has in promoting sports, said Mr Lee.

Apart from organising the local science olympiads, it will also coordinate Singapore's participation at the international science olympiads, he said.

Serena: I welcome the move

AN INTERNATIONAL science olympiad gold medallist, Serena Tan, 18, welcomed the move to reserved university places for students like her.

She liked the experience of competing with the brightest from Russia, China and other countries, even though just before flying to Moscow last year, she caught the flu.

It did not help, she said, that once the competition started, she and her team mates were not allowed to talk to their mentors and teachers who had accompanied them.

"I was feeling pretty alone and nervous. The next day I went in with a headache and a fever. I thought it was a joke when I was asked to synthesise paracetamol."

She took a five-hour theory paper in an auditorium that had almost no windows -- in the summer.

But still she enjoyed the competition.

"It was a magnificent experience. The medal was a bonus," said Serena, whose parents are Simex traders.

The Straits Times
Thursday, January 9, 1997

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