Philippa Stevenson: Our academic achievers need supporting too

Why don't we give trophies to our high academic achievers?

The question was posed by a mother whose son had just been selected to attend the Chemistry Olympiad in Taipei in July. Why, she continued, do they get presented with a book or a book voucher?

It's a good thought, and at the very least would open up a whole new line of business for trophy makers. The gold or silver figurines would need to juggle a Bunsen burner rather than a ball, and the engraver learn to spell deoxyribonucleic acid.

But would-be academic Olympians have more on their minds than figurines. The chemistry Olympians have to each raise $1500 to enable them to attend their event - a lot of sausage sizzles, but not quite the hurdle their counterparts are up for to reach Beijing the same month when New Zealand fields its first team in the Biology Olympiad.

The bio-brains have to fire up enough barbecues to rustle up $4000 each to get to China and make months of preparatory swot worthwhile.

When I stopped by to make the acquaintance of 13 highschool students earlier this month at a selection camp at Waikato University, Kings College teacher and Biology Educators Association of NZ (Beanz) chairman Jules Robson contrasted attitudes here with those in other countries. He was one of the teachers and lecturers giving up holidays to voluntarily coach the students.

Olympiads are held in maths, physics, IT, geography, and earth science, as well as chemistry and biology. New Zealanders have competed only in maths and chemistry, in part because of a lack of financial support. Competitors elsewhere may have prepared for years in dedicated training camps or special schools. They are likely to have their careers made by their attendance at the esteemed events.

Robson and proud mum can't help but look over at the playing fields and wonder why our academic achievers are not accorded the same support as our sporting elite.

Sports people frequently turn to Sport and Recreation NZ (Sparc) and its annual $70 million budget. About $6 million of Sparc and Education Ministry money is dedicated to activities for highschoolers.

The closest academia gets to Sparc is the Royal Society of NZ, the independent, national academy of sciences which, among its activities, administers funds for science and technology. Royal Society education manager Peter Spratt believes elite intellectual pursuits should get the same degree of financial support as top sporting performances "but not at sport's expense," he stressed. "It's unbalanced at the moment."

In the last year the society gave about $47,000 from the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology's Talented School Student Travel Award to 41 students going to international science and technology forums.

The award criteria didn't stretch to adult chaperones so the society dipped into its own funds on several occasions to assist accompanying adults.

Destinations included space camps in America and Australia, a global young leaders forum in the Netherlands, science and engineering camps in Britain and Korea, computer conferences in India and Australia, and the maths and chemistry Olympiads in Greece.

The Ministry of Education also began a Talent Development Initiatives Funding Pool in 2003 which has so far gone on 17 programmes targeted at gifted and talented learners, including the chemistry Olympians.

Spratt believes it would make "absolute sense" for the society to shoulder the administrative burden for the Olympiads while leaving the rest of the organisation in the hands of the teacher and other groups who've handled it so far.

If the Sparc model is a suitable funding channel for keeping our bodies active and healthy, then it would also seem to make sense for the society to do the same for our grey matter. The society is willing. "If there's enough money put into it, the society is prepared to do it," Spratt said.

The four Upper Hutt College students who attended last year's Future Problem Solvers competition in Kentucky show what is at stake, and what is to be gained.

Thanking the society for their funding, they commented that "we worked very hard to achieve this goal, and not to have reached the object of all our hard work would have been devastating for us as a team.

"The experience we actually gained competing against hundreds of other students from all around the world will always be a fantastic memory to us all."