September 06, 2019
Iran has had two of its worst years the last two years in the international science Olympiads for high school students.
Back in the 1990s, Iran usually ended up in the top 10 countries at the Olympiads. But, in this century, its teams have slipped badly.
In the 1990s, Iran’s average ranking in the Olympiads combined was always in single digits. In 2006, the average fell into double digits and it has been back in single digits only once since then—in 2017.
But last year, its average rank was 14.8 and this year it was 14.0. The only time Iran has previously scored worse was 14.2 in 2012 and 15.6 in 2010.
The rankings have been mixed, however. This year, the Iranian team at the math Olympiad ranked 23rd, which was its next-to-worst rank ever in that Olympiad. But this year in the informatics (computer) Olympiad, Iran ranked 4th, which was its next-to-best ranking ever.
There are five major Olympiads held each year—in chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology and informatics. The first Olympiad was started in 1959. It was sponsored by the Soviet Union and attracted few countries outside the Soviet bloc and the neutral world. When the Cold War began to fade in the 1980s, other countries, including Iran and the United States, joined.
Iran quickly developed a system for tracking and training quality high school students in the sciences and math and did exceedingly well. But, in this century, other countries appear to have mastered that technique as well.
The United States didn’t do well in its early years in the Olympiads, but now does exceedingly well. It finished first in two of the main Olympiads this year. But China has the best overall record. This year, it ranked first in three Olympiads and third in the other two.
Not to put a racial spin on things, but the fact that the United States is an immigrant society helps the United States immensely. Take the US biology team this year; its members were: Christopher Wang, Jason Zhang , Henry Shen (all Chinese ethnics) and Suhas P. Chundi (an Indian)
This year, Iran did not send a team to the physics Olympiad because it was held in Israel.
Last year, Iran was the host of the Olympiad in biology—and Iran ranked 7th.
Iran‘s best year in this century was 2017, when its average ranking was 6.0. It came in 4th in informatics and chemistry, 5th in mathematics and 11th in physics that year . It attended the biology Olympiad, but none of the members of the team got a score. A footnote on the scoring table said, “The Iranian students could not take the practical tests,” which account for more than half of the competition. It did not explain why Iran could partake in the practical tests in other years, but not in 2017.
