Uneven equation

Once in history, Vietnamese students braved thundering barrages inside dank bomb shelters to carry on their study of math.

Inside these dimly lit, claustrophobic quarters an instructor would lead lessons with pupils dutifully taking notes while the chaos of war reigned outside.

The country’s brightest minds nowadays recount the times when they learned to love math from the very best of teachers who didn’t fail in courage to inspire a generation.

“I once told the Mathematical Society of the Philippines how Vietnamese students would study math inside bomb shelters in the 1960s,” said Do Ngoc Diep, a professor who works at the Hanoi-based Institute of Mathematics (IM).

“My Philippine colleagues told me it was this spirit – which their nation lacked – that drove Vietnamese math forward.”

During the anti-colonial wars against the French and Americans, with support from countries in the former Soviet bloc, Vietnam reserved its best students to send abroad to study math and other fields considered essential for the country’s economic development.

Although students specializing in math only accounted for one to three percent of the total students going abroad in those days, the field quickly became the country’s most developed fundamental science.

But that was history.

In a recent interview with local media, IM’s director, Ngo Viet Trung, said Vietnamese mathematicians now “suffer a headache” when thinking about math’s future in Vietnam.

The number of mathematical publications is decreasing while published works in other fields have gone up.

Most active mathematicians are over 50 years old and few young Vietnamese choose math as a career.

Those who diligently pursue the subject have gone abroad and are hesitant to return.

Some fear that in ten years or so, even the Hanoi math institute – the current cradle of local mathematicians – will become another chapter in history.

IM professor Vu Ngoc Phat said as far as mathematical research is concerned, Vietnam is a little above average, ranking 40 to 45 out of 100 countries.

“With many outstanding math students and professors having been trained in developed countries, we should perform at a much higher level than this,” Phat said.

Mathematicians also know the field of math and social and economic development go hand in hand.

In Vietnam, where the economy is still in a nascent state, math shares the fate of all fundamental sciences in suffering from lack of investment.

Former IM director Ha Huy Khoai said in developed economies, big companies invest copiously in fundamental sciences because they see the need to do so.

But here in Vietnam, businesses aren’t interested and the government, who should shoulder the task, isn’t enthralled to pour money into the field.

Khoai used to be part of a group of scientists selected to establish a new university that would foster local scientific teaching and research and attract talented people.

But for various reasons, realization of the project is going slow.

The estimated US$200 million for the project is a big sum, but “not impossible” for a country like Vietnam.

“It isn’t that we don’t have money,” Khoai said.

“It’s probably because our government isn’t determined enough to make it happen.”

In a conference held earlier this month to review Vietnam’s education goals until 2020, the university project was still part of the country’s development blueprint.

But many now doubt if the plan will ever materialize.

Weak support

Speaking to a group of secondary and college students at a recent workshop in Ho Chi Minh City organized by popular math website Vietnam Math Forum (VMF), Khoai compared the nature of the field of math to the air that surrounds us.

“Math is essential but too transparent to recognize,” he told students.

“That’s why it was rather late in history that mankind discovered it.”

Except for those who appreciate math’s intrinsic beauty, Khoai said few young Vietnamese would pursue it because of its low perceived value.

Math has never promised to deliver riches to its practitioners, but the field seems particularly undervalued in the domestic arena.

Professor Phat said for decades, salaries of math teachers and researchers have remained the same in Vietnam.

“I’ve yet to know a country where the salary for a professor guiding PhD students is as low as here: $10 a month,” he said.

Khoai’s salary, which is among the highest at the math institute, is around $300 a month.

Every year, the government awards $3,600 for high-quality fundamental science research.

This amount is often split among five to ten researchers.

By comparison, Khoai said a Malaysian researcher gets as much as $20,000 for a published work.

Across the border, China is also providing the type of support to its researchers that many local mathematicians can only dream of having.

Director Trung said every year, the Chinese government selects the 100 best scientists from among those who return from abroad and gives each of them $290,000 in their first two years of conducting work.

Since 1994 when this policy was started, more than 1,000 Chinese scientists living abroad have returned home.

“I often wonder if our policymakers dare to make such decisions,” Trung said.

In terms of attracting Vietnamese scientists living overseas, the government’s goodwill has only played out in speeches and resolutions, not concrete measures, he said.

Reported by Thuy Linh (To be continued)