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The third annual Bahrain World Scholar’s Cup competition takes place next weekend at St Christopher’s School’s Isa Town site as quick-thinking and smart-talking bright pupils from across the kingdom aim to make it to an international extravaganza over the summer.
Teams of three students will be competing in fun, challenging and competitive activities on Friday and Saturday, January 29-30. The youngsters will undertake debating, collaborative writing and answering quiz-style questions.
Each annual competition has a theme – this year’s is called ‘An Imperfect World’ and involves six interrelated subjects – art & music, literature, history, science, social studies and a special topic, ‘crime and justice’.
There are two age ranges for the competition, 14 and below and 15-plus. The competition is open to all students in Bahrain, and it is anticipated that there will be some entries from schools in nearby GCC States too.
Students who wish to enter the competition should form a team and submit a registration form through their school. St Christopher’s senior school will host the competition, which is being arranged by assistant head teacher, Adrian Walker. “Parents are welcome to come and support, although it is notable that the debating and Scholar’s Bowl are more watchable than other competition elements. We are sure that the World Scholar’s Cup will be both worthwhile and fun,” he said.
Daniel Berdichevsky, founder of the international World Scholar’s Cup competition, as well as other members of his team, will be flying into Bahrain to lead, compere and judge the competition.
The Bahrain competition is one of many regional events around the world. Teams who perform particularly well are then given invitations to the World Scholar’s Cup Global Competition, which will be held in the Thai capital Bangkok from June 26-30. It is anticipated that there will be a strong delegation from the competition at this international event.
In 2015, pupils from St Christopher’s and the British School of Bahrain travelled east to the finals. Ahsab Chowdhury, a St Chris student, achieved the distinction of coming second in one of the four competitions at the global round of the World Scholar’s Cup, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
He was competing against nearly 2,000 of the most able international students. Ahsab, 13, who lives in Janabiya, said: “I really enjoyed going to Kuala Lumpur, meeting people from all over the world. The competition was great fun, learning new things that were different to my usual school work.
“My favourite subjects in the 2016 competition are history and social studies. I have been discussing the ‘imperfect world’ theme with my two teammates, Taha Ansari and Rayyan Syed Ali, who also participated at the global round of the World Scholar’s Cup in 2015. This has helped us to prepare for the Bahrain regional competition.”
Their aim, along with the other student teams, is to progress through to the Global Round and the Tournament of Champions staged later in November at Yale, the American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut .
Students who wish to take part will be asked to register and pay a non-refundable fee of BD30 (per person). The fee covers all of the competition costs, including bringing into Bahrain representatives of the World Scholar’s Cup who run the actual competition. Students will be provided with a hot lunch on the competition days along with lots of prizes and an alpaca mascot. No entries will be accepted after Tuesday, January 26. For more details contact Mr Walker at adrian.walker@st-chris.net – and information is also available at the World Scholar’s Cup website www.scholarscup.org and on the World Scholar’s Cup Facebook page.
