Turkish Light Academy secondary school last week collected 86 medals (25 gold and 61 silver) to emerge the best school from Africa at the 10th edition of World Scholar’s Cup, an international academic tournament, which encourages students to develop speaking and logical thinking.
The Kigo-based school sent 13 students to this year’s edition, held at Yale University in the USA. The competition attracted 1,714 students from over 40 countries across the world, aimed at building a global community of future scholars and leaders.
The participants took part in a series of activities such as collaborative writing, team debates, scholar’s challenge and scholar’s bowl, among others. Ibrahim Karadag, the school’s head teacher, explained the essence of the competition.
“It is an Olympiad that involves so many activities which fits well in our [effort] to make our students become self-confident, learned and competent. The fact that the world is becoming so competitive, our aim as a school is to expose these young minds to better competitions that match with the development and demands of the world today,” Karadag said.
Uganda’s other representatives were Aga Khan High School and Galaxy International School, which collected 12 and eight medals, respectively. Karadag jetted back into the country with his students on November 27. Among the eager parents were former West Budama North MP Fox Odoi Oywelowo, who was pleased with his son’s performance.
Odoi’s son Jordan Sebastian Orach won gold in the scholar’s challenge, team debate and written test.
“Education is multifaceted; every exposure gives you a competitive advantage, and in a global world, you can’t survive when you remain local,” Odoi said of his son.
“The problem with our education system is [it is built on] cram and reproduce… such a system of education can’t be complete, it should be able to produce intellectual thinkers that can compete with the rest of the world.”
Opendi also called for a re-think of the current education system so that schools can be able to give learners an outer world exposure.
“Education should not be about class activities but should integrate other activities that give the learners an international exposure. Turkish Light Academy has shown that it is possible because they are not running an international but a local curriculum and by excelling at the World Scholars’ Cup shows that a Ugandan child also can,” Opendi said.
sadabkk@observer.ug
