December 24, 2022

14:12

Mencius Melo – Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Students from seven States of the legal Amazon won 494 medals in the 17th Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools, Obmep. The event is held by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (Impa) and was attended by over 18 million students. The first phase took place in June and the second in October 2022. The students won gold, silver and bronze medals. The State of Amazonas came in first place with 122 medals. Pará came right behind with 105.

In third place, the States of Rondônia and Roraima were tied, each with 66 medals. Acre and Amapá were in fourth place, with 61 medals each. Tocantins was fifth with 13. For the professor of physics, mathematics and mechanical engineering, Denny Nogueira, the victory of Amazonas reinforces the advance of knowledge in the Amazon Region. “It is a victory of the exact sciences and I, as a professional in the area, I am happy. It is a great victory”, celebrated.

For the teacher, the achievement demonstrates that there was a growth in learning and that this needs to be further enhanced by governments. “The number of medals obtained in the national mathematical Olympiad demonstrates that we are on the right track for the growth expansion of exact sciences in the Amazon. But, You need to invest more and more in structures, skilled labor and adequate equipment so that, increasingly, our students have access to a quality exact education”, pondered.

Roraima

Lindeval de Lima, mathematician and professor at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), commented, in an interview to AMAZON AGENCY, the result of the event in the State. “In part, this result is due to the participation of the PIC – Scientific Initiation Program and ONE – OBMEP in Schools programs, the first of which is offered to medal winners and also honorable mention, and the second is directed to students who did not achieve medals”, he detailed.

Lima highlights that the scientific initiatives reach students and teachers, without making any distinction between those who “learn” and “teach” the subject of mathematics, since the goal is to train everyone. “In this case, ONE works directly in schools, with teachers who receive training and pass it on to these students. See how important it is, because not only the students are trained, but also the teachers”, explained the mathematician.

For the teacher, popularising mathematics is fundamental. He highlights that mathematics is important in all areas of knowledge and that the main goal, in these programmes, is to prepare students by acquiring good logical reasoning. “For sure, they will be able to make the right decisions, regardless of the area they follow in the future”, stresses Lindeval de Lima.

Qualification

Also according to the master, it is necessary to further qualify education professionals. “It is necessary a better qualification of teachers in the public network, and that Obmep has been doing through the ONE program. Here in Roraima, the number of schools awarded this program was minimal, due to lack of resources. Itaú has already informed that this year there will be a cut in funding, what worries us, because having more scholarships for teachers, more schools may have access to the program and, thus, we are training more students and teachers in the network at the same time”, account.

Mathematics teacher Max Ferreira, also from the Federal of Roraima, highlights that the result shows that mathematics is slowly ceasing to be considered “a taboo” in Brazilian education. “This resistance established in the early years of student life helped to make the teaching of mathematics difficult and created a cultural resistance to this magnificent and fundamental science, called exact science. Mathematics is, in fact, a heritage of human knowledge”, he praised.