MEC Facilitates Four High School Students to Join International Chemistry Olympiad

Jakarta, InfoPublik - The Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) facilitated four high school students to take part in the 52nd International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), July 23-29, 2020.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IChO was held online instead of in Istanbul, Turkey, like it was supposed to.

Turkey's IChO Committee and the IChO Steering Committee since March 2020 have begun to explore opinions about the mechanism of IChO implementation this year. With a long and intensive discussion, the IChO committee finally decided to conduct the competition using a remote access exam, which is a long-distance test that is participated by participants through their respective countries.

Examination with direct supervision via video conference conducted by the IChO committee in Istanbul, Turkey. While mentors and judges also work and discuss online through the video conference platform.

This year the IChO was attended by 60 countries from the previous year's 82 participating countries invited. The participants were 235 students, 166 academics (mentors, scientific observers, investigators, scientific committees), and judges from Turkey as the 52nd IChO organizer.

The Indonesian IChO team consisted of four students, namely Ivan Candra Gunawan from Petra 2 Surabaya SMAK, Steven William from Petra 1 Surabaya SMAK, Mark Soesanto from BPK Penabur 1 Jakarta SMAK and Rifqi Naufal Abdjul from SMAN 81 Jakarta; and four mentors from Chemistry FMIPA - ITB, namely Prof. Dr. Djulia Onggo, Dr. Deana Wahyuningrum, Dr. I Nyoman Marsih. And Dr. Fainan Failamani.

Acting Head of the National Achievement Center (Puspernas), Asep Sukmayadi said that in a pandemic situation, the MEC continues to prepare the IChO team by providing intensive online coaching.

"In addition to chemistry, there are still other science competitions that will be facilitated by Puspresnas, namely Mathematics, Biology, Information Technology, Economics, Astronomy, and Earth science," Asep explained, as quoted by the MEC in Jakarta, Wednesday (29/07).

Translator: Wilda Stiana