From October 24 to 26 in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) carried two seminars for the preparation of teacher mentors in the Sixth European Statistics Competition and the Third International Statistical Poster Competition. The work program included presentations on the regulations and guidelines for participation, as well as sharing good practices from mentors of winning teams over the years. The seminars were opened by Assoc. Prof. Mihail Konchev, PhD - Deputy President of the NSI, who greeted the attendees and outlined the priorities in the institute's work to increase the statistical culture of young people in Bulgaria. Special attention was paid to the contribution of the pedagogical community in motivating the students to deal with statistics and the benefit to society of people in various professional positions who know how to properly understand and use official statistical information. Antoaneta Ilkova - director of the directorate and head of the NSI teams for the competitions, presented the new initiatives - outdoor exhibitions and a statistical essay contest, which expand the palette of opportunities for the performance of different age groups among adolescents. Assoc. Prof. Dr Alexander Naydenov from UNWE presented the main elements and stages of the competitions and outlined the criteria for evaluation by the jury. The shared successful practices of teachers from Pazardzhik, Varna, Sofia, Vratsa and Troyan gave the first-time attendees of the seminars the opportunity to gain good pedagogical experience in organizing the teams and in the orientation towards high results in the rankings. The international achievements of the Bulgarian students in the Competition were demonstrated through screenings of their video clips. The prize-winning statistical posters from Bulgaria were also shown on the three days. In the discussions during the seminars, all aspects of working with students in the field of statistics were touched upon, and many suggestions were given to enrich the forms of contact and year-round communication between NSI and teachers.
