KARACHI, Jan 8: After a tough competition, the Atchison College, Lahore’s team managed to win the first trophy of the International Schools Educational Olympiad (ISEO)-2002, which commenced here on Tuesday.

In all, 93 schools, including that from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta, had sent separate teams to participate in different events of the four-day Olympiad. The deputy-director of British Council, Karachi, Charlie Walker, was the chief guest at the opening ceremony that was attended by over 700 participants, team leaders, schoolteachers and parents of the participating students.

The chairperson of ISEO, Parveen Kassim, who is also the principal of the Karachi High School, told Dawn that various teams including that from India, UK, Germany and the United States had confirmed their participation in the Olympiad, but they could not come to Karachi due to the prevailing situation in the region. An ace quiz-master from India was also invited for the event, but at the eleventh hour the man also expressed his inability to come.

Ms Kassim said she wanted to make the Olympiad, originally conceived and developed by a montessori school in Lucknow, a memorable success. Though the culture of understanding each other and listening to and learning from others has yet to be promoted, she continued, schools in Pakistan had started showing enthusiasm in the Olympiad and that was why the number of participating teams and schools was multiplying every year.

“It’s a painstaking process to organize events of such nature, but I have the passion for equipping students with skills that will broaden their horizon. The Olympiad is aimed at inculcating the moral and academic awareness, identify the hidden capabilities and provide the Pakistani students an opportunity to stimulate their intellect and mobilize their creative activities through completion and exchange of ideas and knowledge,” she maintained.

There is no entry fee or any pre-set criteria for the registration of teams from schools and all the schools willing to participate have been allowed to join the show, said one of the organizers. About 165 invitation letters had been issued to different schools for participation in the programme, which comprized quiz, debate, cyber fair, model display, drama, art competitions, short story-writing, vocals, film making and web page presentation.

On the first day, two events — quiz contest and art competition — were conducted. About 80 to 90 teams entered in each of the two competitions.

The quiz competition, consisting of general-knowledge questions on various subjects, mostly international in nature, was completed in two phases — written round and main quiz round of oral questions. In all, ten teams were selected for the oral rounds, including a buzzer round that involved the best six teams.

The team leader and participants from the winning team - Atchison - said questions were very tough. Students and team leaders suggested for inclusion of questions having relevance to Pakistan and Islam.

The results of quiz competition that could be finalized on the first day is as follows: First prize - Shaan Khalil and Ahmed Iftikhar (Atchison College, Lahore); Second prize - Syed Waqas Jawed Iftikhar and Muhammad Hussam Arshad (St Michael’s Convent, Karachi); Third Prize - M Hassan Aslam and Omer Rafique (City School Sr Boys-II, Karachi.

According to the organizers, results of the art competition would be finalized on Wednesday. In the competition, students were asked to illustrate using words, sentence, paragraph or the essence of the poem by Iqbal, Faiz, Javed Akhtar and Ghulam Abbas, selected by the organizers, in any manner that they wished.

For Wednesday there are four events on the card - Debate, short story-writing drama, vocals by juniors and 3-D animation. Participating schools are allowed to bring a very limited number of observers in some of the events, informed the organizers of the Olympiad being held by Karachi High School.