THE IMPACT OF SCHOOLS IN KAZAKHSTAN ON STUDENT’S SUCCESS IN SUBJECT OLYMPIADS

Subject Olympiads help students find their favorite field of activity, get in-depth knowledge beyond the school curriculum, and have a decisive role in choosing a future profession. It must be remembered that success in this area depends on several factors, such as the student level, socio-economic background, school environment, family support and a good supervisor. Among them, the school a student attends can significantly impact the contestant's educational path.

According to the list of the best 100 Olympiad schools published by the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan, the first three places are taken by National School of Physics & Math (FIZMAT) in Almaty, Bilim-Innovation Lyceum (BIL) in Astana, and BIL in Atyrau region [1, p. 4]. The first usual public school in the rating of the best 100 Olympiad schools appears only in 30th place – school-gymnasium №68 in Almaty. Such positioning of Kazakhstan's schools means that usual public schools or gymnasiums are not adequately involved in Olympiad activity.

Moreover, there is a typical pattern in Kazakhstan's composition of teams on every International Olympiad: it mainly consisted of students from specialized public schools such as FIZMAT, BIL, NIS, School-Lyceum №8 or other private schools in Astana and Almaty. Pupils from usual public schools are hardly ever selected as members of Kazakhstan's team. Last year, a team from Kazakhstan at the International Physics Olympiad (IphO) included students from NIS, School-Lyceum №8, the international school "Miras," and Specialized Lyceum №165 [2, p. 4].

Such inequality in students' opportunities, mainly in Olympiads, allows to hypothesize that the school teenager attends significantly impacts Olympiad success.

According to the research study by Özlen and Özgün about factors influencing students' success in the Olympiads, contestants' initial motivation and purposefulness help achieve certain points, but to go further, Olympians need a competent supervisor [3, p. 4]. Supervisor is someone who will guide the ward to the right course of action, and without a teacher student's path will require much more effort.

Taghidizaj and Malmir’s study found that in most successful cases, there were presented a certain list of conditions: training programs, seminars about Olympiads for parents, purchasing essential books, and providing necessary resources [4, p. 4]. Meanwhile, the list of unsuccessful cases shows the absence of such conditions, which should be provided exactly by the school administration.

It was decided to conduct a survey, as a primary source of information, to collect data from a relatively large group of individuals. The sample size is 101 people, including Olympian students as well as non-Olympian ones, from different cities and schools of Kazakhstan. Almost 60% of replies are from the common city - Aktobe. The dominance of Aktobe residents in the sample in comparison with other cities can negatively impact the findings of the research study. 

Respondents were asked “Does the school provide you with free attendance?”. Free attendance is permission to study for the Olympiad instead of going to school lessons. Based on the results demonstrated below, approximately 58% of respondents claim that they are provided with free attendance only before important Olympiads, just over 24% have free attendance during the whole year, and only 18% do not. Such results show that schools mainly endeavor to set special conditions for pupils to prepare for coming Olympiads.

Table 1.

Responses to the third question of survey

Likewise, students answered for question “Rate how much influence the school has had on your active participation in Olympiads from 1 to 10”. While the impact of specialized schools was evaluated nearly as 8, the influence of public schools was notably lower with an average value of 5.3. 

Table 2.

Responses to the sixth question of survey

Overall, the average rate of schools' influence on students' Olympiad journey is substantially higher for specialized ones in comparison to usual public schools. Consequently, students who study at specialized schools tend to be more involved in the Olympiad movement and show better results. This is due to the conditions and opportunities that are provided by lyceums rather than by usual public schools. 

The research findings underscore a significant disparity in students' participation and success rates in Olympiads, depending on whether they attend specialized lyceums or general education schools. This stark contrast in academic performance, particularly in the context of Olympiads across various subjects, poses a substantial challenge to Kazakhstan's overall quality of education. The implications of this research are far-reaching, potentially guiding future studies to address this issue and drawing public attention to the existing gaps in the country's educational system.