Ukraine

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is the leading authority in conducting All-Ukrainian Student’s Olympiads. The Ministry is approving the Article on All-Ukrainian Student’s Olympiads and is executing the monitoring of abidance to the Article during the passage of all rounds of the Olympiad.

Address: 10 prospect Peremohy, Kyiv, 01135, Ukraine

mon.gov.ua/

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is the main organizer and sponsor of All-Ukrainian Student’s Olympiads.

The Olympiad is being run in four rounds:

1st round – school level; is held in October at all secondary schools throughout the country;

2nd round – district (municipal) level; is held in November-December by regional (municipal) governances of education;

3rd round – regional level (in the Autonomous republic of Crimea – republican, in cities Kyiv and Sevastopol – municipal); is held in January-February by regional governances of education;

4th round – all-national; is held in March by the Ministry of Education and Science.

The final, or the 4th, Olympiad round is carried out in two tours (theoretical and practical). Tests for the competition are prepared by a commission, which members are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The regional capital is, as a rule, the very place, in which the All-Ukrainian Biological Olympiad is held. Which region is receiving the Olympiad in the next year is settled according to the schedule that is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. By alternating the place of staging every year, the All—Ukrainian Biological Olympiad is attracting host financial structures and charitable foundations as sponsors.

The first selection step covers all secondary schools in Ukraine. Therefore, the typical number of participants is 270 000-290 000 students.

At the 1st and the 2nd rounds, multiple choice tests, tests on sequence and matching, and open questions are exercised. Tasks for the 1st round are prepared by school teachers, for the 2nd – by a commission, appointed by the corresponding municipal or regional authorities. Tasks for the 3rd round include multiple choice questions, tests on sequence and matching, open questions, and practical tasks (not less than two ones for each form). Tasks for the 3rd round of Olympiad are devised by a commission, members of which are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Tasks for the 4th round include multiple choice questions, tests on sequence and matching, open questions, and practical tasks (four classrooms, one for each participating form, in different fields of biology). Tasks for the 4th round of Olympiad are designed by a commission, members of which are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Students are trained by themselves for their participation in the 1st round. Similarly, they are self-trained or trained by a school teacher for the 2nd and the 3rd round. The qualifying and training gathering, which lasts for one week, is organized for the winners of the 3rd round. Results of the gathering are taken into account when forming a team for the 4th round. When the 4th round is over, a group of 8 students is selected. This group participates in the qualifying and training gathering for the IBO. This gathering lasts for 6-8 days and concludes by a selection of 4 students for the IBO team.   

During their training for the Olympiad, students are using their schoolbooks, university textbooks, lecture courses corresponding to the school, college, or university level, which are published in print or are posted at the websites of educational establishments, translated educational literature, tests of former National or International Biological Olympiads, which can be found at the website of the National Biological Olympiad.  

Aiming at the support for the student training and at the Biological Olympiad organization, educational and methodical materials, which contain methodical suggestions for the student training, analysis of tests and questions, recommendations on the designing of Olympiad tasks and criteria for estimating the performance of students, and examples of tests offered in previous years as well, are distributed at different rounds of the competition.     

Winners of the 2nd round of the Olympiad are awarded with diplomas of I, II, and III level by the educational governances of districts or towns.

Winners of the 3rd round of the Olympiad are awarded with diplomas of I, II, and III level by the regional educational governances.

Participants of the 2nd and 3rd rounds can be awarded with prizes by corresponding organizing committees, jury, charitable foundations, sponsors, etc.

Winners of the 4th round are awarded with diplomas of I, II, and III level by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The remaining participants are awarded with the diploma of a participant.

Winners of the 4th round of the Olympiad, who scored the best within the same form (i.e. occupied the first place and got the highest number of points among the students belonging to the same form), and are continuing their further education in Ukraine are granted Presidential Allowances, which are paid out monthly during one year from the funds provided to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine by the State Budget.  

Diplomas of the I, II, and III level awarded at the 4th round give the right to be exempted from the competition for the corresponding majors on entering Ukrainian universities.

Participants of the spring gathering for qualifying and training are exempted from the Final State Validation.

The IBO prize winners are granted Presidential Allowances, which are paid monthly during one year from those budget funds that are provided to the educational establishment at which the beneficiary is studying. Diplomas are awarded at the ceremonial closure of the Olympiad. 

Any wishful student from the 8th to the 11th form can participate in the 1st round of the Biological Olympiad. Any restrictions infringing the right of students to participate in the 1st round of the Olympiad are prohibited. Only those students, who are the winners of the previous round of the Biological Olympiad, are admitted to the participation in the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th round. The number of winners of every Olympiad round is determined by the organizing committee of this round. Participants of every next Olympiad round are determined personally by the organizing committee of the previous round together with the jury.

Regional teams (in a case of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea – the republican one), and municipal teams from Kyiv and Sevastopol are participating in the 4th round. Number of persons in a team is determined according to the team’s rating that is calculated based on the team performance during the last two years. In concert with the All-Ukrainian Biological Olympiad, the Ecological Olympiad consisting of defenses of scientific projects by students is being run.

Educational year starts on the 1st of September. The last day of the educational process is the 31st of May. When classes are over, students of the 8th and the 10th form are attending educational excursions and educational practice, which lasts for a ten days, while students of the 9th and the 11th form are passing their Final State Validation, which lasts up to the 20th of June.

Biology is studied in the 7th, the 8th, the 9th, and the 11th form for 2 hours in a week, in the 10th form – for 1 hour in a week. In schools with extensive learning of mathematics or foreign languages, only 1 hour in a week is devoted in the 11th form to the biological classes. In the basic school (from the 5th to the 9th form), the maximal amount of hours, namely, 4 hours in a week, is allotted to the biology studying in the 8th and the 9th form in the schools with extensive biology learning. In the senior school (the 10th and the 11th forms) maximal amount of teaching hours, namely, 3 hours in a week, is allotted for classes specialized in natural sciences.

The amount of classes in secondary scools is regulated by State Standarts and may vary across particular educational establishments according to the educational plans. The maximal value for the educational workload at secondary schools is estimated as 33 hours per week.

Teachers are obtaining information on terms and conditions of the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd rounds of the Olympiad from decrees, which are dispatched to educational establishments by regional or municipal educational governances. The decree of the Ministry of Education and Science on the 4th round of the Olympiad is posted at the website of the Ministry, is published by the Informational Digest of the Ministry, and by the newspaper “Education in Ukraine”, and is handed out to regional governances of education and science. Students at schools are informed by the corresponding to a respective Olympiad round announcements on bulletin boards, which contain the competition schedule.

The primary sourse of the corresponding information is the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Approximately 75% of all general secondary education schools are participating in the All-Ukrainian Student’s Olympiad in Biology

Information on the Biological Olympiad and its results is published in the pedagogical press (e.g. newspaper “Education in Ukraine”, magazine “Biology and Chemistry at School”, newspaper “Biology-School world”). The passage of the 4th round is reflected in newspapers and on TV channels of those regions, in which territories the Olympiad is organized this year.