Tellippalai Mahajana College representing Jaffna at Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3

The historic, 106-year-old Tellippalai Mahajana College recently beat out 17 other secondary schools to win the Jaffna district leg of the Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3.

Commenting on his school’s win, Tellippalai Mahajana College Team Captain Mr. K. Kugavarman noted that, not only were they victorious in this year’s Jaffna district leg of this Super Quiz, but this was also the first time they participated in this quiz in any way. He also indicated how proud he was that his team had bested Vaddukottai Hindu College in the first round, Jaffna Hindu College in the second round and St. Patrick’s College at the finals.

Further, Mr. Kugavarman signalled that his team would continue to work hard, gathering general knowledge in various fields, so they could extend this winning streak to the national level also. He also expressed his team’s appreciation to Tokyo Cement, the Ministry of Education and Swarnavahini TV for supporting, facilitating and organising this Super Quiz.

Adding to this, the science teacher at Tellippalai Mahajana College responsible for the quiz team, Ms. B. Pathmalogini, said that she was sure her team had the determination needed to succeed at this Super Quiz, especially since her school had always guided students to work systematically to boost their general knowledge. For example, at her school, newspaper stories were read out in brief at assembly every day and, based on the general knowledge from these newspapers, two questions were put to students every Friday, with the students who answered correctly being rewarded.

At the same time, Ms. Pathmalogini indicated that her school also conducted general knowledge written exams every term for students from Grade 6 to GCE (A/L), in addition to submitting teams for science and social science quiz programmes conducted by the Department of Education. All of which proved to be ultimately helpful when it came to university admissions requiring the successful completion of a ‘General Common Paper’ wherein general knowledge questions featured prominently.

It was also noteworthy that this year’s edition of the increasingly popular Tokyo Super Quiz also witnessed a number of new teams participating in just this district alone, which could likely signal an overall increase in attendance at this Super Quiz across all districts. New entrants at this year’s Jaffna District preliminaries included Vaddu Hindu College, Pungudutivu Sri Subramaniam Maha Vidyalaya, Kokkuvil Hindu College, St. John’s College, Senkatha Hindu College, St. Henry’s College Ilavalai, Kaithadi Muthukumaraswamy Maha Vidyalaya and even Manipay Hindu College, which interestingly also made it to the final four. Ultimately, it was also important that there was representation from all five educational zones under the purview of this district, comprising not only Jaffna but also Valikamam, Vadamaradchi, Thenmaradchi and the Jaffna Islands.

Jaffna district winner Tellippalai Mahajana College will now go on to take part in the televised Colombo final rounds of the all-island Tokyo Cement Super Quiz Season 3, to be held in March 2016, and telecast on Swarnavahini TV, where 32 final teams will compete for more than Rs. 5 million in prize money in addition to exciting gifts. Laptops and tablet computers were gifted to winners and runners-up of the previous season.

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 longtime 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.