The 27th International Biology Olympiad (IBO), held in Hanoi from July 17 – 23, will record the biggest student and delegation numbers at an IBO so far.

All the four Vietnamese students secured medals at the 26th IBO in Denmark last year.

The Olympiad will see 264 students from 68 delegations competing. The three other delegations are observers, Nguyen Van Minh, President of the Hanoi National University of Education – the event’s organiser, said at a press conference on July 11.

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.

VNA