Vidyasagar Science Olympiad: 4,950 candidates across districts appear for 2nd layer exam

Kolkata: A total of 4,950 candidates across the state appeared for the Layer-II Examination of Vidyasagar Science Olympiad (VSO), 2024 held at 26 centres covering all the districts.

As many as 5,194 candidates were selected from the VSO Layer-I Examination held on June 23 and 95 per cent of these students sat for the Layer II examination held recently. Layer-III Examination is likely to be held on September 22.

VSO is a tri-layered examination system designed to extract and identify the pre- Madhyamik science talent of class IX from all corners of Bengal. It is a flagship project of the School Education department and the examination is conducted by Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) under the supervision of the state School Education Directorate.

The top 10 students from 24 districts (including Kolkata) each get a book grant of Rs 2,000 based on their results in the second layer. Top 100 students selected from Layer-III Examination will each get a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 for 24 months along with an annual book grant of Rs 2,500 for two consecutive years.

In the Madhyamik examination 2024, eight VSO scholars ranked among the top ten in merit list. The VSO scholars get to prepare themselves for National and International Olympiads through participation in the two science workshops, including training sessions organised by JBNSTS for each subject-wise National Olympiad Examination. Insight and interest of VSO scholars in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects is highly enhanced by the Nurturing Workshops.

The VSO 2024 is the third year of the examination. The class VIII syllabus of the science subjects like Physical Science, Life Science and Mathematics are covered in VSO.