Who gets to the podium?
What math olympiads says about basic education inequalities in Brazil
The Brazilian Public Schools Math Olympiads (Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática das Escolas Públicas — OBMEP), which was extended to private schools in 2017, represents a stimulus for talents in the exact sciences area. According to the regulation, all medalist students are invited to join the Jr. Scientific Initiation Program, which prepares them for a future academic and professional performance. But great part of the medals concentrates in some Brazilian states, and that is correlated to the financial resources available in these places. Gender disparity between the olympiads participants also draws attention.
Analysing the OBMEP winner lists in 2017, 2018 and 2019, states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais stand out with the biggest number of medals for municipal and state school students — more than 1.100, on average. The difference between second and third place is huge: state of Paraná had an average of 332 medals. The first two states are also the ones which receive more financial resources from the Basic Education Maintenance and Development Fund (Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica — Fundeb). Similarly, states of Acre, Roraima and Sergipe, each one with less than 60 medalists on average, occupy the last positions when it comes to Fundeb distribution. Mathematically, it is about a positive correlation — the more Fundeb money, the bigger the state’s number of medalists tends to be and vice-versa. These information become clearer on the sheet below, in which the averages of the years analyzed were used:
In the annual distribution of Fundeb resources, enrollment in public and partner schools from each state, besides a minimum amount per student, are regarded. That is why São Paulo, for example, gets 22,5% of the Fund: the distribution considers the size of education networks. In 2019, Roraima had access to R$835 thousand — it represents 0,5% from Fundeb resources in that year; the amount allocated to São Paulo was R$37,4 million. The Fund does not benefit federal schools, so only municipal and state institutions were considered in this report. The data about Fundeb distribution among Brazilian states is from the National Treasury Secretariat.
In each OBMEP edition, public school students are awarded 500 gold medals, 1.500 silver and 4.500 bronze, according to the levels of participation. The competition is organized as follows: level 1 is intended for 6th and 7th grade elementary school students; level 2 for 8th and 9th graders, and level 3 for high school. The Olympiads first stage consists in an objective test with 20 multiple choice questions. The participants with best performance in this stage make it to the second phase, a test composed of 6 open response questions. The award, for the best ones of the second stage, is divided between public and private schools, with a smaller number of medals allocated to selective public schools.
In 2019, there was 54.831 schools enrolled in OBMEP’s first phase, including public and private, in 99,71% of Brazilian cities. 18.158.775 students participated, of which 949.240 signed up in the second phase.
Correlation between financial resources and number of OBMEP medals is not a phenomenon restricted to only a few states. In the maps below, it is noticeable that who gets to the podium is, usually, who goes to school in the south and southeast regions. With some exceptions, those are the regions with bigger education networks and, consequently, the ones which receive a higher Fundeb percentage.
States of Bahia and Santa Catarina are exceptions that draws attention: their colors invert if the maps are compared. Bahia, evading the correlation, gets an average of 7% of Fundeb (3rd highest percentage among Brazilian states), while it’s municipal and state network students get 107 medals. Santa Catarina, on the other hand, gets 3,7% of the Fund and flaunts, on average, 309 medals.
Under the current Fundeb legislation, at least 60% of the money must be used to pay education professionals — in practice, some states even invest 90%. The remainder of the Fund can be used to purchase materials or do the schools maintenance. With data from the 2018 QEdu Census, it is possible to compare Santa Catarina and Bahia in terms of infrastructure of educational institutions.
In 2018, the year when the QEdu Census data on infrastructure was collected, Bahia had 99 medalists and got R$10,9 million from Fundeb. Meanwhile, Santa Catarina got 363 medals and R$5,7 million from the Fund.
In the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, state schools were predominant in the total medals, both in general and in São Paulo, state with more medalists. Federal institutions are the minority, whereas they also have less students and, in part, are selective schools. The sheet containing the medals total, the averages and Fundeb distribution can be accessed in this link.
Since the Fundeb distribution considers the size of education networks and an amount per student, it does not explain the medals distribution at OBMEP wholly — even tho there is a correlation. The reporter did a multiples analysis, in which more than one variant is regarded, at Excel. It resulted in the following: the presence of a library at schools is significant when responding for the students performance at the Olympiad. If the Fundeb resources are disregarded as a variant, computer labs and rooms for special student service show up, mathematically, as significant. That is, these infrastructure factors at schools are the ones which better predict, or explain, the variety in the medals distribution at OBMEP. But that’s what maths say; in reality, several other factors have to be considered when arguing on disparity in the number of medalists.
Professor Márcia Jacomini does research on Public Policy for Education and Educational Management and is boss editor of Fineduca magazine. She explains that Fundeb consists of a percentage of taxes that each state levy; when a state is not capable of collecting enough to reach the minimum amount to be invested per student, the Union complements the resource. It turns out that rich states, like São Paulo, never happen to need that complement and, even so, stay above the minimum amount established. No federative unit invests, in its basic education students, less than the Fundeb minimum. But some states can invest more.
According to professor Marcia, the established minimum Fundeb amount per student is less than the minimum needed to ensure quality education. The Student-Quality Cost (Custo Aluno Qualidade — CAQ), calculated by National Campaign for Education Right, shows what would be the amount to be invested in each basic education student yearly, sorting out education steps and modalities. CAQ is produced from a set of supplies that are regarded as fundamental. “You come to this amount considering what the school needs, number of education professionals and how much they should receive”, claims Márcia. “And the amount is significantly higher than the established in Fundeb”.
Therefore, even tho it does not contemplate everything that determines a good education, a school’s infrastructure is important including when producing the CAQ. “Considering that financing is important, states in which the Fundeb amount per student is higher [than the minimum] theoretically are states with a more structured education network, schools with more resources and can pay their professionals better. And all these factors can corroborate for a better result in the Olympiads”, points out professor Márcia.
Gender disparity
Another math olympiads aspect is male and female participation. In OBMEP, years 2017, 2018 and 2019 had an average of 27,4% of the medals given to girls; the boys are 72,6% of the medalists. Besides granting medals and honorable mentions, OBMEP is also one of the classifying tests to the Brazilian Math Olympiad (Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática — OBM). According to the regulation, the 300 higher scoring students in OBMEP second step in each level are invited to the OBM single phase.
OBM can be a passport for bigger challenges: there are competitions with participation conditioned exclusively to the Olympiad awards, like the Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad and the Iranian Geometry Olympiad. A spot in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) depends on OBM awards and on the student’s performance in selection tests. In 2020, the Brazilian team at IMO had 6 participants, all male.
The girls already start in a lower number at the list of invitees for OBM single phase, which does not count students classified at regional olympics. Besides that, if the lists of invitees and confirmed students for the test are compared, females tend to give up more than males. The sheet below is a comparison between years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Letícia Rangel, retired teacher at UFRJ Application School who coordinated the Olympic Girls project, from Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada — Impa), believes that a set of factors determines that girls lose since early their interest for maths and related fields. “What is observed in the maths olympiads context is a reflection of a much broader phenomenon”, claims. “Research relate factors that depart girls from exact sciences area with socio-cultural issues that begin in the first years of life. For example, boys usually get riding toys while girls get those wich are care-related. Gender stereotypes have a significant impact in confidence and in girls’ interest for these areas”. According to the teacher, the low participation of females is not a matter of capability, but self-selection.
The fact is that boys participate in a big number at OBM, and girls are the minority. The charts compare numbers of male and female participants, according to the list of confirmed students for the test: who has more chances of getting to the podium, in this olympiad, are the male ones.
The Olympic Girls project, coordinated by teacher Letícia Rangel, complied with a call from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico — CNPq) on Girls at Exact Sciences Area, Engineering and Computing. Letícia explains that the initiative did not have the olympiads as an end, but as a means “to interfere with self-selection and self-efficacy phenomena, encouraging girls for maths and for the general exact sciences area”. The project, besides typical preparation activities for math olympiads, fomented visitation at academic environments and contact with professionals in careers involving sciences, technology, engineering and maths. Workshops involving, besides mathematical challenges, games and discussions on the gender matter in the exact sciences area were regularly fulfilled.
The CNPq calling did not happen again and the Impa Olympic Girls project was suspended, but it planted seeds: robotics projects developed at schools made it possible for female students to occupy protagonist positions in events where they presented what they produced. Teacher Letícia reports that, besides that, it is currently possible to keep up with the girls on social media remmarking on their developed good relationship with maths and sciences topics.
Report produced at the Cyber Journalism Department, ministered by professor Marcelo Träsel in the Journalism course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
