More than a thousand of high school students from Arica, Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, Valparaíso, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins and Región Metroplitana participated in the seventh version of the School Tournament of Mathematics (Campeonato Escolar de Matemáticas, CMAT).
From March 2009, to qualify among the finalists, schools and workshops were organized, which took approximately four hours of exercising a week, even weekends. On 23th October, all this effort was rewarded at the awards ceremony held at the Teatro Baquedano, University of Chile.
“Education in Chile is going through a period of discussion and criticism; we hear how almost all the darts aimed at teachers and pupils. This tournament and the effort shown by teachers, students and their families, gives us encouragement and hope that we can do interesting and impact things, “said Jaime San Martin, director of the Center for Mathematical Modeling and deputy director of this championship.
Besides the FCFM’s faculty presided the ceremony, Patricio Aceituno, Vice Dean of the FCFM and Pedro Marín, director of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of Universidad de Santiago de Chile.The School Tournament of Mathematics is an initiative aimed to identify new talent in mathematics and also become an instance of integration, improvement and a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. Its organizers help in the development of workshops and support schools and the achievement of the minimum content of Mathematics.
CMAT’s director, Prof. Rafael Labarca, has any doubts that many of the medalists will be national score in math at the next PSU. “For a young man who has worked at an academy for 6 years, the University Selection Test is a triviality. Their knowledge of mathematics is so vast that truly these tests are not a stumbling block.
This championship started in 2003 with the participation of 13 schools from the metropolitan area. It continued the following year with the participation of 27 schools from two regions. Currently, over 75 schools from different regions of the country compete in this tournament.
More information: www.cmat.cl
