On March 9, Minsk / Yulia Vanina - BELTA /. The intellectual competitions of the Republican School Olympiad will last for four weeks. This was reported to BELTA correspondent by Yuri Gladkov, Head of the Department of General Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education. From March 14 to April 9, the final Republican stage of the Olympiad for students in general education subjects will be held in Belarus. The school elite from all regions of Belarus will demonstrate their knowledge in 16 subjects. "These children are truly bright minds, they have proven their intellect, knowledge, and thirst for science in all previous stages of the Olympiad," noted Yuri Gladkov. This year, in the first week of competitions (March 14-18), the Olympians will demonstrate their knowledge in mathematics, Belarusian language and literature, German and French. The Mathematics Olympiad will be held in Gomel, the Belarusian language and literature Olympiad in Dzerzhinsk, and the German and French language Olympiads in Mozyr. In the second week (March 21-26), the main diplomas will be contested among experts in computer science, Russian language and literature, chemistry, and astronomy. The Luzhesnyan boarding school-gymnasium of the Vitebsk region will host young computer scientists on March 21. The Olympiad in Russian language and literature will be held in Brest, in chemistry in Grodno, and in astronomy in Gomel. During the third week (March 28 - April 1), students will demonstrate their knowledge in social studies (Mogilev), physics (Gomel), biology (Grodno), and labor training (Kobrin). From April 4 to 9, participants of the Olympiad in English or Spanish will gather in Mozyr, and in geography and history in Mogilev. As Yuri Gladkov recalled, this year the regional and republican stages of the Olympiad in academic subjects for students of institutions providing general secondary and secondary vocational education are held in a new format, which allows participation in the Olympiad in several academic subjects. 148 schoolchildren became winners of the regional stage of the Olympiad in several subjects at once. "At the regional stage, 583 students participated in the Olympiad in several subjects, of whom 148 received first, second, and third degree diplomas in two or three academic subjects," the head of the department noted. "Out of all participants in the regional stage, 40 people became contenders for victory in the final stage of the Olympiad, of whom 35 advanced to the final in two subjects, and 5 in three." -0-

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