Gold Medals for Romanian Students at International Olympiads

After Romanian students won gold, silver and bronze medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Bath this month, other students followed. They won other medals for Romania at the International Olympiads.

Romania won three gold and two silver medals at the 54th edition of the International Physics Olympiad, which took place in Isfahan, Iran, between July 21 and 29, 2024. Students from 46 countries participated in this edition, and the Romanian team members stood out by winning three gold and two silver medals.

In addition, Romania’s Chemistry Olympic team won three silver and one bronze medals at the International Chemistry Olympiad held in Saudi Arabia.

The paradox of Romanian education is visible – while there are top students and excellent teachers to lead them to the Olympiads, the failure of the Romanian educational system is visible.

Pisa Tests show Romanian students are functionally illiterate. 42% of Romanian kids don’t understand what they read, hindering them from following instructions or fulfilling tasks later. Also, 49% don’t know how to apply math in real-time scenarios, and 44% don’t know how to recognize scientific explanations regarding similar scientific phenomena.

Romania is the second to last in the European Union. Only Bulgarian kids are more illiterate than Romanians, a comparison that shows that education is not a priority in Romania, even though the current president launched “Educated Romania” as a presidential program. Nothing happened, though, to improve kids’ literacy, and the results tell the world about the Romanian paradox: while the Romanian students win gold medals at the Olympiads in Mathematics, Informatics, Chemistry and so on, the masses are illiterate.