Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Centre for International Education of the Lomonosov Moscow State University are holding XIII International Olympiad of the Russian language for schoolchildren using distance technologies. The Regional Charity Community Foundation “Quality of Life” is providing organizational and technical support.

Overseas secondary school pupils between 12 and 17 years old can take part in the Olympiad which will include two rounds: distance and in-person.

The distance round will take place from February 20th until March 31st 2013. The distance round of the Olympiad consists of three tests (listening, reading, writing).

The results of the distance round will be published on the site of the Olympiad on April 17th 2013.

The 60 schoolchildren who achieve the best results in the first round will progress to the next round (in-person) which will take place in the Lomonosov Moscow State University between 19th and 21st June 2013. The program of the in-person round includes three exams with writing, listening, reading and speaking assignments.

All participants of the second round of the Olympiad will be offered a cultural programme. For the heads of delegations there will be a round table discussion devoted to the issues of improving Russian language teaching in foreign schools.

After the in-person round winners will be chosen in the following categories: “I can speak and write Russian” (basic level of language skills) and “I know and love the Russian language” (the first certification level) in two age groups: from 12 to 14 years old and from 15 to 17 years old.

Detailed information can be found on the Olympiad site: olymp.dist-learn.ru.