Child prodigy underneath hearth for ‘dishonest’ her technique to in a single day stardom
A student who dazzled the public by finishing near the top of the first round in a maths competition was helped by her teacher, organisers said.
The maths teacher is said to have broken a key rule of “no discussion with others,” the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition Organizing Committee said of the competition in China on Sunday.
It remains unclear how much the child was helped, but the accusation puts a dent in the impressive performance by Jiang Ping, a teenager studying fashion design. She became an overnight celebrity in China when she finished 12th in the preliminary round of the competition, which attracts graduates of top-tier universities in the including Cambridge, and MIT and Caltech in the US.
(Image: Alibaba Damo Academy Floor Sweeping Monk/Bilibili)
The preliminary round the teen took part in was an open-book exam that allowed students to use online and offline materials, but they were not allowed to discuss anything with others.
The young teen was celebrated in her home town, where blown-up photos of her were displayed on the walls of shopping malls where she grew up in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. She also earned the praise of two major universities in the region.
But her stunning achievements led to some negative speculation online and people began raising suspicions, especially when something looked off with a blackboard filled with mathematical formulas shown in a broadcast on state news channel CCTV.
Teacher Wang Runqiu also entered and finished 125th in the preliminary round, with him and his student qualifying for the final round of 802 competitors. Neither were listed among the 86 winners.
The organising committee said the investigation “exposed problems such as imperfect competition system and the lack of rigorous management. For this, we express our sincere apologies”.
Her school, the Jiangsu Lianjiang Vocational School, said the teacher had been reprimanded and would not be eligible for a one year evaluation that can determine promotions and salary raises. There was no punishment for the teen, however, and the school for “more tolerance and care” to be shown to the child by the public.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba founded the competition in 2018 to encourage students who enjoy maths.
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