Epic finale of Tokyo Cement multi-million rupee brain game
Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:08
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Royal College, Colombo, beats Ananda College with a narrow margin
The Tokyo Cement All Island Schools Quiz 2013, a multi-million rupee brain game amongst schools across Sri Lanka, came to an exciting finale on 23 March in an epic battle between the blue-and-golds, and red-and-golds. Two of Colombo’s top boy’s schools, which survived intense mental melees for months, met in a final show down that ended with the blues taking home one million rupees in prize money.
Excitement was building up since January, after four teams of boys and girls fought their way up to the semi-finals. The program saw the cleverest school children from across the island, pitting their intelligence against each other for over one year.
The finals saw the four teams reduced to two, with the champions from the hill capital, Mahamaya Girls School and Dharmaraja of Kandy, being defeated by Ananda and Royal from Colombo. On Sunday, parents and children watched the decisive finals that left one team standing as the best of the best of Sri Lanka’s public education system. In a close race that saw the teams going head to head in almost all three rounds, Royal College, Colombo, beat Ananda College with a narrow margin.
“We congratulate the Royal College quiz team on their victory and we say well done for a game well played, to the Ananda College quiz team,” said Billy Walpola, Director Marketing of Tokyo Cement.
Keeping its promise Tokyo Cement presented the victors, Royal College, with a one million rupee cheque and the runners up, Ananda College, with a Rs. 500,000 cheque. The company also presented the four members and two back up members of the Royal College quiz team with Samsung Tablet computers. The six Anandians were gifted Titan watches amidst the cheers of school mates and smiles of proud teachers. The school authorities stated that the winnings will go into the respective School Funds at Royal and Ananda, and will be used for school improvement activities.
Accepting their prizes, the captains of the two teams – Kaveendra Pathirage from Ananda College and Archanath Dikwella from Royal College – thanked their school authorities and colleagues for supporting their teams. Dikwella noted that the quiz had been a unique experience as it had been broadcast islandwide over the television.
Tokyo Cement All Island Schools Quiz 2014
With the conclusion of this mega competition, Tokyo Cement and its media partner Swarnavahini, are already planning a comeback.
“We are encouraged by the positive response we have received from educationalists in the country. We are also very happy with the success of our first quiz program, which was a major project involving complex logistics, due to its all island coverage. We hope to see more schools participating in the Tokyo Cement All Island Schools Quiz season two, when it returns in 2014,” said Walpola.
Tokyo Cement, which initiated the quiz program to encourage the pursuit of knowledge through academic competitiveness, has already invested over Rs 5.2 million in the project as prize money and over Rs. 22 million, in support services.
To ensure that children from any part of the country, rural or urban, were given an equal opportunity to participate and display their mental capabilities, Tokyo Cement and the Ministry of Education invited all 9,700 public schools in Sri Lanka, to enter the competition. This resulted in 532 schools sending their intellectual champions to show their mental prowess.
Tokyo Cement distributed Rs 100,000 each, to 24 out of 32 schools that reached national level competitions. While the balance eight schools entered the quarter finals, four lost the mental skirmish, but were gifted Rs 200,000 each. Out of the remaining four, two schools were ousted in the semi-finals and were awarded Rs 250,000 each. This Sunday, the two finalists made history by winning two of the largest rewards for a quiz program in Sri Lanka.
Building Sri Lanka’s future
The return of the Tokyo Cement All Island Schools Quiz has the support of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education and educationalists. As the quiz is endorsed by the Ministry of Education, the questions have been designed to suit young people and encourage them to search for information and broaden their classroom knowledge.
Speaking at the end of the 2013 competition, Secretary to the Ministry of Education Anura Dissanayake noted that the quiz is helping to build Sri Lanka’s youth resource base by creating young people with wider awareness.
Director of ICT of the Ministry of Education G.M. Neil Gunadasa, a member of the panel of judges, said the Tokyo Cement Quiz is a successful public-private partnership that supports the national school education system. “Tokyo Cement has behaved in a responsible and ethical manner and this is a good model for social responsibility projects for companies,” said Gunadasa.
Commenting on the fact that both finalist schools were from Colombo, Director of Co-curricular Activities, Guidance Counselling and Peace Education Nihal Yapa noted that the schools that made it towards the final stages have internal structures that groom and direct students towards such extra-curricular activities.
“The Tokyo Cement Quiz may encourage other schools to also establish such structures that train students to participate in activities such as quiz programs. Particularly, as this quiz program offers a substantial reward that will help the winning schools improve their systems. So this is a very good thing because of the potential benefits,” said Yapa.
Leading educationalist and panellist of the quiz Edwin Ariyadasa said the young participants have proved that Sri Lankan youth can use information technology to effectively enhance knowledge and learn from global information flows.
“At a time when there is concern about the use of social media and information technology, this shows that our children can use these technologies for positive purposes. I think this is a strong message that our children can rise above narrow ideas about new technologies,” said Ariyadasa.
With a solid foundation in place, the Tokyo Cement All Island Schools Quiz program is ready to continue supporting Sri Lanka’s education system to help build a better tomorrow for our children.
