As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, more than 200 high school students from 44 national teams competed in the International Economics Olympiad (IEO) 2021. The host country this year was Latvia, and the competition was held online from July the 26th to August the 1st.
Croatia was represented by the Batana team from the Zvana Crnja High School, a Rovinj school which includes students Deborah Bozic and Tea Paris and students Luka Domic, Simon Constantin Djekic and Patrik Mocibob. The winning team was mentored by Sandra Kranjcic and Jelena Bulian Petrovic.
“The crown of our effort and work, the acquisition of knowledge through four years of education in economy, was the winning result at the National Economic Olympiad. Considering that this was the first economic olympiad held in Croatia, and at the same time the first performance of students and mentors at the international competition, we didn’t know what awaited us.
We relied on our acquired education in which we invested a lot of effort and work. As far as the national competition is concerned, it was important for us to achieve good investment results and have a good overall result. We succeeded in that through teamwork, togetherness and faith in all members of the team,” say mentors Sandra Kranjcic and Jelena Bulian Petrovic.
As they say, the whole competition was conducted in English, which was a difficult circumstance for them in solving the tasks.
“The tasks were quite demanding for us because the curriculum for the education of economists differs from country to country. The entire competition included the Financial Literacy Game – a simulation of life and investments through a certain character of a person and the importance of their dreams through which we presented our knowledge of financial literacy, our exam knowledge of economics and the preparation of presentations and case studies on new car production.
The experience was positive for all of us, we made new acquaintances, communicated with students from different places, and adopted new knowledge and skills. We tried out something new and different that will definitely help us in our further education. We had the opportunity to present our work and demonstrate our communication and presentation skills to the mentors and juries from various countries.
Unfortunately, the entire competition was held online because of the situation with the pandemic, so we didn’t have the opportunity to travel to Latvia and experience the real charm of such a large competition,” said the members of the Batana team from the aforementioned Rovinj school.
This year, EMI is being held for the fourth time, and since its launch back in 2018, the hosts have been Russia and Kazakhstan.
The Olympiad included individual competitions in the form of a simulation game in financial literacy, tests of knowledge in economics and its practical application, as well as team competitions in the development of the best strategy for solving a practical business situation.
“For Latvia and the University of Latvia, the honour of hosting the Olympiad is the greatest recognition of our work on the committee, the council and the jury. We’re determined to do our best to make this year’s competition an unforgettable adventure for young talent from all over the world, both in terms of gaining new knowledge and making new friendships,” said Gundars Berzins, Dean of FBME at the University of Latvia.
The Croatian Economic Olympiad, ie the Croatian Economics Olympiad, is a project of the Centre for Youth Development, whose winners were the Batana team from the Rovinj school representing Croatia in Latvia. The aim of the project, they say, is to encourage high school students to engage in extracurricular activities and use their knowledge acquired in school on concrete examples and tasks, and to further interest them in entrepreneurship and economics.
According to the association, they are extremely satisfied with the response this year, namely almost 20 Croatian schools have confirmed their participation, and some have even registered more than one team. It’s worth mentioning that the Centre for Youth Development has been operating since 2012, and under the auspices of the centre, more than 500 students and young people have volunteered since its activation.
“The association cooperates with more than 90 student associations and youth associations and provides support to more than 200 of their projects in order for young people to contribute to the community, while gaining knowledge and skills that aren’t provided by formal educational institutions,” stated the centre.
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