PUPILS FROM AKTOBE AND UST-KAMENOGORSK REPRESENTS KAZAKHSTAN IN KOREA

In the capital of the country, final selection of senior pupils to the Kazakhstan national team for the IESO is finalized.

— Four Kazakh students will go to South Korea. Rustam Valeyev from Aktobe (Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, NIS), Almas Iskendirov from Ust-Kamenogorsk (“Bilim” innovative lyceum), Amir Zholdasbekov from Astana (NIS), and his compatriot Aibike Zhagiparova (gymnasium №4), — shared the project coordinator of Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation Nursultan Nurmukhanov.

Interestingly, that the only girl in the team made an attempt to get enrolled to the national team last year, but poor English language skills did not allow her to do so. Having seriously improved her English over a year, Aibike has achieved the goal, and this year she will represent our country at the international competition.

— How were children able to pass to the final? Last year we notified many schools across the country of the competition, and they further carried out the selection later. They sent their best students to Astana, and 37 of them successfully proceeded to the final. The guys demonstrated deep knowledge in geology, astronomy, oceanology, and, of course, English. We have selected the four strongest students out of them, — said Zhanat Ismail, Director of the “Zhas geolog” foundation.

Further, the winners of the competition begin preparing for the Olympiad by solving tasks similar to those at the future competition. Professor of Geology Laurent Richard and candidate of geological and mineralogical Sciences and head of interest club “Zhas geolog” Aigul Baidauletova (both from Astana) will prepare Kazakh students. Classes will be held online twice a week.

— IESO is a well-known Olympiad, and participation in the event, winning the awards, are prestigious for the country and for children. This shows the level reached in Kazakhstan in the field of Earth Sciences. I took part in the final selection and I can say that the level of your guys is really high. I hope that this year your country will again have medals at the IESO, — Professor L. Richard shared.

Students selection round was arranged by the corporate foundation “Zhas geolog”, the general sponsor of the national Kazakhstan team at IESO is the Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation. It should be noted that from the IESO in 2017 and 2018, Kazakhstan participants returned with 9 awards. It is interesting that the 13th Olympiad will be held this year in the same city, Daegu, where it was first held in 2007.