Vietnam to Host 27th International Biology Olympiad

Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi will hold the 27th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) from July 17-23, will the record number of students at an IBO, state media reported. The Olympiad will see 264 students from 68 delegations competing. The three other delegations are observers, said Nguyen Van Minh, President of the Hanoi National University of Education – the event’s organizer. This is the first IBO to take place in Vietnam. Theoretical and practical examinations, to be held at the university, are designed by Vietnamese lecturers and biologists, he added. Foreign students and teachers will also have a chance to learn more about Vietnam’s culture and landscape through visits to Bat Trang ceramic village and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, along with the Trang An eco-tourism complex in Ninh Binh province. They will also have an exchange with Vietnamese students at the university, Minh noted. Vietnam attended the IBO, an annual competition for secondary school students, for the first time in 1996. It has won one gold medal, 10 silver medals and 45 bronze medals in total so far. (Nguoi Lao Dong – Laborer July 12 p12, Giao Thong  - Transport July 12 p2)