I was a math teacher at the Philippine Science High School way back in 2002 and i had coached several math olympiads in the past. Now, i am teaching high school here in the United States. I would like to comment on the age issue regarding IMO. In my opinion, genius in math is inborn. If a student is really good in math, then he will excel in math no matter what. Does the age matter then? My answer is yes and no. Why? First of all, to win in a contest, you need good material (good contestant). Second of all, you need extensive training. Having good material means having students who really have the talent in math plus good and extensive training, which to me would mean- long exposures to in depth mathematics. The second requirement requires time and thus age matters in this case. Students in the United States are two years older than students in the Philippines. However, when it comes to math content, i still believe our curriculum in our advance high schools are at par with the US. However, in the US we do have more electives in mathematics where students can advance as much as they want to. In the Philippines, we prescribe much of the classes for students to take. Here in the US, students have much more freedom. Also, here in the US, there are so many opportunities for gifted students to advance taking math in the universities sponsored by prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, Princeton, etc. Our students here have access to the leading mathematicians in the world. In contrast, in the Philippines we don't have much access to the leading mathematicians for continuous training in math. So, these facts speak for itself. Good material+good extensive training+mathematics maturity= winning.

With regards to extending the years in the elementary and high school, i feel skeptical. Why? Do we really need it? We have so much successes already with our graduates. We have leading and successful graduates who finished college at a younger ages. They were successful! For those who didn't succeed, there might be other reasons. Probably their basic backgrounds were not good enough. In this case, we can place them in the intervention program where they can learn their basics. Second, we can support them by making them participate in the summer academic programs in english and math. The third option is, put them in a career where vocational curriculum is the option. I believe not everyone is meant for academics. Others are meant for vocational career. Regardless of what choice students make as long as they do their best, they stay focus on their goals, and they have ambition to become successful, i believe they will succeed. We can't make mathematicians out of everyone, but we can make vocational career for all.

Leo Pedregosa
MEd Math; MS Math/STAT
CA, USA

I am not a bonafide teacher but i'm familair with the profession as i came from a family of teachers-My mom,(a principal) dad all the way to my aunts and uncles). In a caucus, my mom told me the status of education in her school and the decline of students in both math and english subjects respectively. We both agreed, some of the best solutions is not adding another level in year but start the students "young" meaning, beef up the prep and kindergarten years so children will be introduced to the subjects with advancement and present it to them in a manner they will surely love.

On another note, provided that area has been checked,then again,our problem will still not be solved if the bureau of education will not upgrade the academic program along with teacher training programs and textbooks. The difference between us and the other countries is that our EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IS RIDDLED WITH CORRUPTION. As long as no heads will roll from the top then we will still have poor classrooms, poorly trained teachers, and worst of all obsolete and irrelevant books!

I graduated with flying colors from the existing education program and public school initiatives and it worked for me and my batch, how come it will not work for the coming generation?

im a public school teacher in pampanga and i do not agree adding another year level in elem. and highschool. i also oppose the granting of six year old to grade one. in my tenth year of teaching grade one we have found out that sending six year old kids is like feeding them a spoonful instead of bit by bit size. a suggestion i might add is that the bosses up there should look the real score inside the department and classrooms before doing gigantic curriculum programs.

In you point of view as a Public school teacher handling grade 1 pupils. Can you please explain more why you are not favor of adding more grade levels.