Ways of Reforming the All-Russian Olympiad

Relevance. Intellectual competitions in Russia are massive projects that attract the attention of schoolchildren and their mentors in all regions of the country. The measures taken by the state to popularize the creative activities of students place the procedures for holding competitions in the focus of public attention, focusing on controversial points and contradictions.

Aim is to identify possible ways to reform the organization and conduct of the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren at the school and municipal stages, identify problematic aspects and propose measures to eliminate contradictions related to the Olympiad movement of schoolchildren, in par­ticular, on the example of the specifics of the subject “English.”

Methodology. The methodological basis of the study was the interdependence of axiological, cul­turological, informational, systemic and activity approaches. The following theoretical methods were used: analysis of scientific articles on organizing academic competitions, the analysis of the current regulatory documents that are fundamental for conducting the Olympiad, as well as classification and grouping, and generalization of the results received. In addition, a survey of 1360 practitioners from 12 regions of the Russian Federation was conducted in order to reveal their satisfaction with the existing organizational procedures.

Research implications. The study identified a number of problems that exist when organizing the Olympiad at the school and municipal stages, while some of them are due to the lack of significant expert information in the public domain. Solving these problems will make it possible to make ad­justments to the regulatory documentation, which will lead to an improvement in the functioning of the Olympiad movement as a system for finding and selecting talents thus removing a certain part of the conflicts between the jury and the contestants.

Results of the study. As part of the study, it was revealed that the true unification of approaches to the Olympiad begins only with the regional stage, while at the most massive stages regional and municipal subject commissions determine the specifics of the organization by independent regula­tory acts, which leads to different competitive practices. The lack of academic unity is also revealed when comparing different subjects. When studying the specifics of the Olympiad in English, we also exposed a layer of problems, the reasons for which lie in the federal documentation and the absence of an open dialogue between the Central Methodological Commission and the teacher's community.

Conclusion. To improve the effectiveness of the Olympiad as a means of finding and selecting talents, it is necessary to reform some procedures, in particular, revise the approach to filing the appeal by schoolchildren, allow the revision of the keys, and publish expert information on open access. Besides, it is relevant to conduct on a systematic basis advanced training courses for teachers, both for didactical aims and in the subject area, with the involvement of the jury experts and authors of Olympiad assignments.

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