OVEP reaches Super Eight stage, final set for November 23
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A participant actively engaged at the OVEP 2017 held at the NOC Auditorium
Six girls schools and two boys schools qualified for the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) conducted by the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka via the zoom technology over the weekend.
In a high quality programme where ideas and views of 60 top debaters from 20 top schools around the island were exchanged and showcased.
The schools were Royal College Colombo 7, Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya Colombo 7, Dharmaraja College Kandy, Methodist College Colombo 3, Chundikuli Girl’s College Jaffna, Gateway College Dehiwala, Trinity College Kandy, Good Shepherd Convent Kandy, Musaeus College Colombo 7, Hillwood College Kandy, Devi Balika Vidyalaya Colombo 8, Vincent Girls High School Batticaloa, Girl’s High School Kandy, Gateway College Colombo, St. John’s College Jaffna, Anuradhapura Central College, Bishop’s College Colombo, Mahamaya Girl’s College Kandy, Kingswood College Kandy and Pinnawela Central College Rambukkana.
At the end of the grueling two-day session Royal College Colombo, Sirimavo Bandaranaike College, Dharmaraja College, Chundikuli Girl’s College, Good Shepherd Convent Kandy, Hillwood College Kandy, Devi Balika Vidyalaya Colombo and Musaeus College argued their way into the second round. The super-eight sessions of the programme are scheduled to be held this week.
Female participants from the OVEP held in the recent year
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC Sri Lanka) was invited to attend the 8th World Conference on Sport, Education, and Culture – Olympism: powered by Youth and Education on 25-27 November 2012, Amsterdam, Holland. As an outcome of NOC Sri Lanka’s participation, it was able to establish a sound foundation to promote the Olympic Educational Values in Sri Lanka. Since the year 2012, the Olympic Value Education took as a major theme of the Annual Olympic Academy of NOC Sri Lanka.
In 2017, the NOC Sri Lanka was able to take another major step by organising inter-school debate concept and conducted a Pilot Debate Programme with the participation of twenty leading schools in Sri Lanka.
Commenting on the occasion, Secretary General NOC SL Maxwell de Silva – one of the mentors of the Lankan leg of the event said: “The programme has already been a huge success in the international Olympic forum with several affiliated organisations around the globe congratulating us for the manner in which that we have launched the programme meticulously.”
“There were twenty schools involved in the first round and at the end of the second day we pruned it down to eight schools who will fight it out in the super-eight stage. The super-eight rounds will be worked on 21 and 22 November while the final will be working on Monday, the 23rd.”
De Silva further said even among the schools who could not make it to the final, there were some noteworthy performances. He said especially one contestant from St. Vincent Girl’s High Batticaloa came up with a very impressive argument on the subject of doping which astounded many a witness who followed the programme. This also goes on to prove that the school children of today are very literate on the events at hand.
Finally, de Silva dwelled upon the subject of being physically fit, for the younger generation. He said in the days of yore physical fitness was a school subject where a period was allocated especially for that. Sadly, now it has become a thing of the past and as a result, this generation is gradually moving away from sports and physical fitness which is a must for a healthy future generation.