Teachers and more than a dozen schools from across the country gathered at Monash University on 8 December for the taping of the National School Quiz Championship (NSQC) final.
The conference room at the university was filled to capacity as the camera crew, eager guests of honour and excited high school pupils all got ready to crown the first ever NSQC champions.
The men behind the NSQC brand, Ian Venganai and ‘The Quizmaster’ travelled the country to choose 32 schools who took part in different rounds of the championships to secure a spot in the national finals.
NSQC was created to celebrate and instil academic excellence in young minds across the country. During the gruelling rounds, pupils are asked questions from a variety of categories including history, English literature and mathematics.
The three pupils from the school that won would not only have the bragging rights of beating more than 30 schools in South Africa, but would also be awarded with full scholarships from Monash University.
“We want to create a generation of creative thinkers and problem solvers. The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we enabling young people to cross from knowledge users to knowledge creators? Each and every pupil here needs to be equipped with the ability to think creatively, think in a global context while developing solutions in our local context,” said Professor Elwyn Louw from Monash.
Before the finals began, Springs Muslim School went neck and neck with Potchefstroom Girls High School to book the last spot in the national finals. Ultimately, the three boys from Springs represented the province by joining Settlers High School from the Western Cape, Durban Girls High from KZN and Victoria Park from Port Elizabeth, to battle for the ultimate title.
Before the competition began, Mzukisi Mdleleni, who is NSQC’s brand ambassador, shared with his peers and the audience what he had learned since becoming a part of the experience. “NSQC is not a competition,” he said. “It is a movement, that celebrates academic excellence. It expands the minds of young people. We are dedicated pupils and we are being celebrated for something we are doing ourselves. It has been a blessing to be a part of this journey.”
With that, the quizzing had officially begun. Settlers High School and Victoria Park moved on swiftly to the second round but Springs Muslim School lost out to Durban Girls High during the sudden death round.
After more than an hour of tough competition and questions that left even the audience scratching their heads, the trio from Victoria Park High School in Port Elizabeth were crowned the first and ultimate winners of the first National School Quiz Championships.
“It has been an amazing experience and we are so excited that we made it this far,” said Pierre Durant. “We just always did our best. It has been incredible.”
The final episode of the championships is set to air on Mindset TV in February 2015.
