We have written regarding triathlon education and
talked about “Too Much Schooling and Little Education,” but the paper written
by the World Bank is the first one considering this issue in detail by a World
Organization, without fear and committed to the goal. It took centuries to get to this point where
a quantified research gives some information about what we need and what is
lacking. It is not a cookbook and it
does not give answers to our problems but we see it as the beginning of a
dialog needed to improve our performance.
“Although some countries are making progress on
learning, their progress is typically slow. Even the middle-income countries
that are catching up to the top performers are doing so very slowly. Indonesia
has registered significant gains on PISA over the last 10–15 years. And yet,
even assuming it can sustain its 2003–15 rate of improvement, Indonesia won’t
reach the OECD average score in mathematics for another 48 years; in reading,
for 73. For other countries, the wait could be even longer: based on current
trends, it would take Tunisia over 180 years to reach the OECD average for math
and Brazil over 260 years to reach the OECD average for reading….Because of
this slow progress, more than 60 percent of primary school children in
developing countries still fail to achieve minimum proficiency in learning,
according to one benchmark. No single learning assessment has been administered
in all countries, but combining data from learning assessments in 95 countries
makes it possible to establish a globally comparable “minimum proficiency”
threshold in math. Below this threshold, students have not mastered even basic
mathematical skills, whether making simple computations with whole numbers,
using fractions or measurements, or interpreting simple bar graphs. In
high-income countries, nearly all students—99 percent in Japan, 98 percent in
Norway, 91 percent in Australia—achieve this level in primary school. But in
other parts of the world the share is much lower: just 7 percent in Mali, 30
percent in Nicaragua, 34 percent in the Philippines, and 76 percent in Mexico.
In low income countries, 14 percent of students reach this level near the end
of primary school, and in lower middle-income countries 37 percent do (figure
O.5). Even in upper-middle-income countries only 61 percent reach this minimum
proficiency.” (Pages 7-8 download)
Can you imagine giving written instructions about training
in Brazil? We know what it means to give written instructions in Mexico. Verbal instructions is not a lot different
from the written ones; listening and understanding what is said it’s something
that needs to be taught. It is not the
case in the majority of the countries.
When I worked at Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center the
basic teaching was to follow orders: 1) Look at my eyes. 2) Listen. 3) Repeat
what I said. In Mexico, we are deficient
in following this basic education.
Triathlon is not immune to this problem. We worked with our athletes on this basic
education and we failed most of the time.
Are we bad teachers? This is a
possibility but I challenge anybody to try teaching with our population. It is a challenge since the beginning because
we are not in the “learning mode.” The “learning
mode” is teachable too; but we lost it long time ago at the level of
families. Respect for teachers and
adults disappeared, and the notion that “one can always improve” is not there. They think they already know what is needed
and to venture to take a look at science is impossible.
In the year 2000 at Perth World Championship the
course was measured 8k instead of 10k for the run. A situation that happened in triathlon where
math was at level of beginners, following what the World Bank mentioned. Carol Montgomery lost the championship due to
this situation.
The International Triathlon Union (ITU) sent a
delegate to Perth in December 1999 to check amongst other technical issues, the
distances of the run courses. The local organising committee staged the
race on behalf of the ITU who ultimately "control" the technical aspects
of the event. The ITU did not identify the discrepancy between the survey
map and the CD Rom version nor did they measure the course in the days
preceding the event.
It takes courage to run a World Championship to the level that were striving towards in staging the 2000 ITU Triathlon World Championship. It has also taken courage to openly investigate the problems and then clearly communicate the findings to the media and public. Nevertheless we do acknowledge that we also did not identify the error in the information supplied to us by the contracted surveyors. As our lawyers have pointed out, this is information we paid for and would have expected to be correct.
The 2000 ITU Triathlon World Championship enjoyed enormous success in terms of competitor numbers, sponsor exposure and business generation, spectator attendance, volunteer contribution and economic impact on the Western Australian economy. We would hope that members of the international triathlon community, while understandably concerned and disturbed about the incident, recognise these facts.
Well, we lately saw Jacob Birtwhistle missing one lap
in the World Series event that took place in Canada. Hopefully he is in the “learning mode,” otherwise
the end of his career is around the corner.
