KARACHI, Jan 21: As the awards distribution ceremony of the International Schools Educational Olympiad draws closer, excitement coupled with an ever-growing sense of urgency mounts amongst students participating in the ISEO-2006.

Every day, students representing schools from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta struggle for top positions in a series of exciting competitions that are both challenging and stimulate their intellect.

The last few competitions of the ISEO 2006 were held on Saturday. These included film making, chess, cyber fair, theatre, and vocals.

A special feature of the vocals competition was the fact that students from India who could not come to Pakistan to attend the ISEO this time as is the trend every year due to visa constraints, took part in the vocals competition through video conferencing which was set up by the hosting committee of ISEO 2006 at Karachi High School.

The director of the British Council, Marcus Gilbert, observed that this was made possible only because of Karachi High School’s continuous efforts towards building international links through video conferencing, exchange of visits and online interactive sessions with schools in the UK and India.

Judges who attended the events held on Saturday to evaluate the different competitions of ISEO 2006 included prominent television personalities like Sajid Hassan, Sadia Khan and Talat Hussain for the dramatics; Nayyara Noor, Arshad Mahmood and Farooq Ahmed for vocals; Baber Sheikh, Jami and Maheen Zia for film making and Arsalan Khan and Sameer for cyber fair.

Moreover, final rounds of chess tournament supervised by the Chess Federation were also held, which is a new competition introduced for the first time in the ISEO this year.

Judges for other competitions of ISEO 2006 that were held also included Summayya Usmani, Marcus Gilbert, Azhar Jamil, Sue Gilbert and Zara Hussain Shahid for debates and Barry O’ Brian, Andrew Scolt for quiz and Shamyl Khuhro and Tapu Javeri for photography.

Results for all competitions of the Olympiad are to be announced on the grand awards distribution ceremony which will mark the end of this five-day Olympiad, which will be held on Sunday.

Quizmaster Barry O’ Brian who will be flying back to India Saturday night extended his sincere appreciation to the hospitality committee of ISEO 2006.—APP