“It is only natural for China and India to win gold medals at physics and astrophysics Olympiads, after all 20% of the world’s population lives there, but it is supernatural for small Bulgaria to be right there, next to them. Statistically speaking, around 1/1000 of the world’s population lives in Bulgaria, i.e. we have a staggering number of per capita gold medals,” says famous physics teacher Teodosiy Teodosiev, with a taste for accuracy so typical of him. He is one of few schoolteachers who seem to have taken upon themselves the apostolic mission of keeping the flag of science and education flying in Bulgaria.

Once again this year the children of Bulgaria demonstrated a world standard in science, winning a total of eight medals at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).

Bulgaria’s secondary school students took part in the competition at the end of September alongside more than 300 participants from 50 countries. By winning 2 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze medals and a certificate of honour they took their place alongside contestants from countries with huge populations, and economies by far more advanced than the economy of Bulgaria. Since 2011 competitors from Bulgaria have won a total of 35 IOAA medals: 8 gold, 11 silver, 16 bronze.

“As usual, we selected the contestants at a national round of the Olympiad on astronomy in June – the top five children from the two age groups were put on the team which represented the country internationally,” says Nikola Karavassilev, one of the youngest leaders of the national astronomy team. “There are few countries better than we are. The best performing country this year was definitely Russia. The US and Canada have also made enormous progress, and China and India traditionally have the top contestants, but they are countries with populations which run into many millions. What matters to me most is that by taking part in Olympiads I am helping these young people meet other like-minded people from all over the world.”

Olympiads are often criticized because the participants in them rarely grow up to be successful scientists. But with astronomy Olympiads it is the exact opposite, says Nikola Kasravassilev and adds: “Two-thirds of our successful Olympians later develop in the field of science.”

“Interest in science does not always go hand in hand with participation in Olympiads. They are a good place for self-expression but they mustn’t be an end in itself. Interest in science means, first and foremost, reading.”

The teacher says that nowadays interest in natural sciences is waning. “People, and not only in Bulgaria, tend to turn to more pragmatic things, but there is always a small number of children with a serious interest in these sciences, children who put in a lot of effort and who achieve success. It was exactly the same way with me 20 years ago when I first applied for participation in an astronomy Olympiad,” Nikola Karavassilev remembers. “I graduated from the National Secondary School of Natural Sciences with a focus on physics, and when I finished 12^th grade I realized that Olympiads were over for me. That whole life – meeting new people at Olympiads, the contacts, all of a sudden it was gone. So, with my good friend Nikolay Kacharov, we decided to start teaching children astronomy. Things snowballed, and for almost 10 years I have headed Bulgaria’s astrophysics team.”