ISU hosts regional contests for high school students. Contests are conducted in a wide range of general subjects taught at schools: Russian language, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Physics, etc. The first contest is in Astronomy. The contest lasts for 4 hours, during this time high school students solve six complicated tasks.

At the opening ceremony Inga Bolshakova, the representative of the Irkutsk region Ministry of Education, and Sergey Yazev, the head of ISU Astronomical observatory, welcomed participants.
Inga Bolshakova noted:
- The contest in Astronomy is conducted only in several regions of our country. That is why we are very glad that Irkutsk region annually organizes the competition in astronomy, and the number of students participating in it is quite high. It shows that the students of our region are very creative and really interested in studying this science. And this is the result of their teachers’ work.