Development Strategy for Well-Established Contests
Latvia's Experience
We have talked to Mārtiņš Danusēvičs, the national coordinator for Team Latvia, the head of the IEO 2021 Steering Committee and the IEO Executive Board member, about his experience of organizing the Olympiad and promoting economics among the youth. Watch the full interview or read the summary below to learn the tips from one of the most successful teams of the IEO.
Mārtiņš Danusēvičs
IEO Executive Board Member
IEO ExEx & Mārtiņš Danusēvičs
Development Strategy for Well-Established Contests
Shortly about the Latvian Economics Olympiad
The Latvian Economics Olympiad (LEO) had existed long before the IEO appeared. Every year from 2 to 4% of all high school students take part in the competition which is really a great rate for a contest in a subject that is not on the curriculum as a separate course.
The LEO is a three-stage competition (school, regional and state levels). On the school level, it is up to schools to decide how to select the winners who will be registered for the regional stage. Level 2 is held online with proctoring on site, so contestants do not have to travel to one single spot. The winners of the regional stage are invited to the state stage (there is also a quota system — see below). Tasks normally focus on economics and financial literacy.
The LEO is a three-stage competition (school, regional and state levels). On the school level, it is up to schools to decide how to select the winners who will be registered for the regional stage. Level 2 is held online with proctoring on site, so contestants do not have to travel to one single spot. The winners of the regional stage are invited to the state stage (there is also a quota system — see below). Tasks normally focus on economics and financial literacy.
Maintaining the nationwide nature of the Olympiad
Latvia, like many modern countries, is very centralized: the majority of people live in the capital which means that the largest schools and educational centres are also located there so the national competition without any inner regulations to promote the regions is at risk of becoming a city contest. This is how Latvian Economics Olympiad copes with this challenge:
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We have a quota system to ensure that each administrative division of Latvia has a chance to be represented at the final stage. The best contestant from each region is invited to the state stage along with another 40 best-performing students irrespective of their region. This way, each part of the country has at least one representative at the finals of the competition.
Consider introducing a quota system which would help to balance both regional distribution and, possibly, gender discrimination.
Ensuring high participation rate
Olympiads in Latvia, including LEO, are supported on the governmental level and promoted by teachers, and Martins admits that it helps a lot to promote the competition among the youth.
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The Olympiads in Latvia are made part of the fabric of the educational system: there are contests in almost every subject. The main route to reach out to students is through their teachers. Teachers find talented children and motivate them to take part in the Olympiad, sometimes with a certain enforcement or through an open motivational system that depends on the school. The teacher whose students show remarkable results get invited to all the awards ceremonies and are also awarded for their pedagogical success, so they are truly interested in working with the talented youth in their everyday school life.
Reaching out to teachers and schools in general can help raise the participation rate. It is also important to consider the system of benefits for teachers/schools that prepare the winners.
Creating effective tasks
Creating tasks for an Olympiad is a constant search of balance between complexity and feasibility which would lead to effective selection.
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From the point of view of form, usually open tasks are more decisive than multiple choice questions. That's why we try to have as few multiple choice questions as possible which is quite a challenge since within the online testing system we use. As to the topics, usually macroeconomics presents a great challenge to the contestants. We even have a clause in our program that says that we are not including macroeconomics questions in the second round because in school programs, this field of economics is studied later. Such topics as supply-demand and cost analysis and entrepreneurship basics usually are the easiest things that the majority of contestants solve nowadays.
Pay attention to school programs in economics and distribute the tasks between the rounds in a way that will follow the topics students study in the given season. If economics is not studied in your country, include questions on financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
Strategy for developing a well-established competition
Olympiads with a long history inevitably face the question: What’s next? Martins sees several points of growth for Latvian Economics Olympiad.
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We lack work with alumni. Alumni are a powerful source of support: they can be both promoters and sponsors of the competition once they grow up, become successful and still have warm feelings towards the competition they participated at school. We should have a database of students so that we could reach out to them and possibly ask them for help, promotion, financing, prizes, and so on.
We also lack cooperation with the commercial sector. We had occasional cases when we find somebody who helps out with prizes, but it hasn't been systemic. Those are organizational drawbacks.
We also lack cooperation with the commercial sector. We had occasional cases when we find somebody who helps out with prizes, but it hasn't been systemic. Those are organizational drawbacks.
Read more
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