SHAMEFUL: Bosnia's best female mathematicians don't know how to travel to the European Mathematical Olympiad

Four of the best young mathematicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina are supposed to travel to the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in Romania in a month.

The travel costs for mathematicians from Republika Srpska, Milica Babić and Tijana Babić, will be covered by the Republican Pedagogical Institute of RS. Unfortunately, their colleagues from FBiH, Adisa Bolić and Neira Kurtović, still don't know who will cover their travel costs. They don't know if they will travel to the European gathering of talented female mathematicians at all.
The office of the Federal Minister of Education and Science, Elvira Dilberović, has made minimal effort, only referring the best Bosnian female mathematicians to the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH.

- Your problem is not within our jurisdiction.

Interestingly, the young female mathematicians from FBiH sought more professional than financial assistance from the minister. But they received neither.

- Since the newly founded Association of Mathematicians of Sarajevo Canton has not yet completed its registration, it is unable to organize (together with the Association of Mathematicians of RS) a selection competition to determine the team (that will represent BiH at the mathematicians' gathering in Romania). The problem is further compounded by the fact that the deadline for registering participants, as well as travel details, is March 21, 2016. If we do not register by then, we will not be able to participate in the competition – stated in the letter from the female mathematicians, which they sent to Minister Dilberović's office.

- Therefore, we are turning to you, with the hope that you will manage to solve the problem. Perhaps by arranging with another association of mathematicians from the Federation of BiH to organize a selection competition with the Association of Mathematicians of RS, in which the best female mathematicians from all over BiH would participate. Of course, it should be noted that the competition should be held as soon as possible. Or, in the worst-case scenario, if organizing a selection competition is not possible at all, the team for the Olympiad should be chosen based on the results of last year's national competition, i.e., the four highest-ranked girls should go to the Olympiad.

We, as competitors who have represented BiH in international competitions multiple times and won numerous medals, wonder if it makes sense to be denied the opportunity to go due to something that is absolutely not our fault? In addition to doing what competitors should do, practicing and striving, we also have to worry about how to even get to the Olympiads, how to make all that effort worthwhile – wrote the best Bosnian female mathematicians.

A brief response from Minister Dilberović's office. They are aware of the problems related to the organization of competitions for primary and secondary school students in FBiH, as well as at the state level, for subjects taught in schools.

- We have repeatedly appealed to the interested parties to systematically resolve this issue, all in the interest of the students and adequate representation of BiH in the world. I refer you to try to resolve this problem with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH – stated in the response from the Ministry.

Young Bosnian-Herzegovinian mathematician Adisa Bolić won a gold medal at the European Mathematical Cup last year.

Among more than 120 participants from secondary schools across Europe, the student from Una-Sana College in Bihać won the maximum number of points and a valuable gold medal.

Neira Kurtović is also a recipient of multiple medals at prestigious world mathematics competitions, writes Patria.