Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3 preliminaries end, televised finals begin

Ananda College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Thurstan College and Sri Rahula Balika Vidyalaya (Malabe), four schools that were selected at the Colombo district leg of Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3

The Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3 ended its preliminary rounds recently, culminating with the Colombo and Gampaha district legs. The winners of the Colombo district leg were Ananda College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Thurstan College and Sri Rahula Balika Vidyalaya (Malabe), while the Gampaha district leg saw Viharamahadevi Balika Vidyalaya (Kiribathgoda) and St. Anthony’s College (Wattala) emerge as winners. Now these six schools along with 26 others representing all 25 districts of Sri Lanka advance to the final televised rounds, soon to air on Swarnavahini. 

Speaking at the Colombo District leg, the Zonal Educational Director for Colombo W.M. Jayantha Wickramanayake said, “The Tokyo Cement Super Quiz, endorsed by the Ministry of Education, was a milestone for knowledge seeking programs of its kind. He also noted that, looking at the school system today, it is felt that school children have poor general knowledge, in comparison to subject-specific knowledge. In fact, we have witnessed that the majority of school children do not actively seek to educate themselves about the world around them. This is often because they do not have enough time to do so due to the complexity of their current school syllabus.

However, thanks to Tokyo Cement and Swarnavahini, the efforts made to organise contemporary and interesting quiz programs, are very helpful in fostering the discovery of knowledge side by side with school syllabi.”

Further, he also added, “Children must see the need to build up their knowledge about new technology and innovations in this changing world and, if they are capable of doing so, this will result in them leading more productive and useful lives. Seeking knowledge, in combination with personality development, allows school children to become true all-rounders. So, it is very important that we fully comprehend and become aware of events that take place in the fields of medical science, engineering, aerospace, marine science, etc. 

“At present, amongst school leavers today, there are only a few who are properly prepared, with appropriate knowledge, attitude and skills needed for society’s benefit. It is not only in this Super Quiz, but also in life, that the ability to seek knowledge is a win-win for us all.”

Also commenting, B.A. Abeyratne, the Principal of Royal College, the host venue for the Colombo district leg, said, “Royal College was the proud winner of the first season of the Super Quiz, while Richmond College Galle was the winner for the second season. So, that shows in reality any school quiz team has the chance to take home the big cash prizes offered by Tokyo Cement this year too.” 

He further added, “General knowledge quizzes facilitated the moulding of smarter students through the discovery of information online, and learning about new and different fields not experienced previously.  This enables the younger generations to figure out how to present what they know in a well planned out, up-to-date and purposeful way, while testing their knowledge in the process.”

Ultimately successful, the 32 teams set to battle it out in the televised Colombo final rounds are as follows: Kiribathgoda Viharamahadevi BV and Wattala St. Anthony’s College (Gampaha); Ananda College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Thurstan College and Malabe Sri Rahula BV (Colombo); Saivapirigasa Ladies College (Vavuniya); Kilinochchi MV (Kilinochchi); Vidyananda College (Mullaitivu); Tellippalai Mahajana College (Jaffna); Al-Azhar National School (Mannar); Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College (Trincomalee); D.S. Senanayake National School (Ampara); Zahira National School (Puttalam); Methodist Central College (Batticaloa); Pushpadana BV, Dharmaraja College and Mahamaya Girls’ College (Kandy); Maliyadewa College (Kurunegala); Medabedda MV (Matale); C.W.W. Kannangara MMV (Kalutara); Mahinda College and Richmond College (Galle); Puhulwella MMV (Matara); Vijitha MMV (Polonnaruwa); Anuradhapura MMV (Anuradhapura); St. Joseph’s BMV (Kegalle); Balangoda MMV (Ratnapura); Rajapaksha MMV (Hambantota); Badulla Central College (Badulla); Royal MMV (Monaragala); and Sripadha MMV (Nuwara Eliya).

Tokyo Cement, Sri Lanka’s leading manufacturer of cement and concrete, initiated the Super Quiz in 2013 to further the pursuit of knowledge and competitiveness at the secondary educational level, overseen by the Ministry of Education. Tokyo Cement is a long-time proponent of Sri Lanka’s nation building initiatives, having recognised the need to lay a strong foundation in the field of education, to prepare the country’s workforce for tomorrow.

Now in its third season, the Tokyo Cement Super Quiz offers up over Rs. 5 million annually in cash prizes alone, in addition to much, much more spent in promoting educational activities island-wide, which in turn fosters excellence across local educational and academic institutions. A truly massive corporate social responsibility initiative, last year’s quiz saw 632 schools competing at the preliminary level, with the televised quiz programme itself also having won numerous, prestigious local awards.