Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya crowned OVEP champions
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The captains of the winning teams of the OVEP debater competition with the NOCSL Executive Committee and organisers
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya Colombo 7 crowned themselves as the champions of the Olympic Values Educational Programme, also known as OVEP. The awards presentation of this programme was held at NOCSL’s Hemasiri Fernando Auditorium on Monday.
The first runner-up of the programme was Hillwood College, Kandy while the third place was taken by Chundikuli Girl’s School Jaffna.
Speaking at the occasion, Secretary General National Olympic Committee (NOCSL), Maxwell de Silva stressed that all contestants were brilliant and delved upon a lot of subjects that were fulfilling to the mundane lives of people. Yet, emphasised that the most important is living by what you preach and that goes on to make a person larger than life.
This is a global educational tool that has been created by the International Olympic Committee to promote educational themes; such as the joy of effort, fair play, respect for others, the pursuit of excellence and balanced life of body, will and mind.
Children learn values through their exposure to the larger world. At some point, they may tend to forget them. So, how can we inculcate values into someone’s life and influence them to use those values in their day-to-day life?
The winners of the Women’s Committee speech contest
With this in mind, NOCSL inaugurated the OVEP Debater in 2017 as a pilot project targeting school students in the Colombo and Kandy regions.
In 2020, we were determined to launch the OVEP Debater 2020 in a living virtual landscape in several provinces, despite unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OVEP Debater team 2020 extended their tremendous support to a successful event. It was because of their teamwork and dedication, the OVEP Debater 2020 reached different provinces in the country.
To surmise the concept of OVEP is global. It covers everyone’s desire to lead a better and fulfilling life. The authorities are planning to spread the OVEP Debater to people of all cultures in Sri Lanka by conducting it in Sinhala, English and Tamil languages and make it a challenge for the cross section of the populace of the island.
In another presentation held during the same session, the NOC SL gave away the prizes for the speech competition conducted by the Women’s Committee of the NOCSL on the topic ‘Make sports a safe zone’.
The first place in this competition went to a young lass from Kuliyapitiya – W.A. Kalshini Dulmitha of Holy Angles Girl’s College, the second place went to a medical student from Jayewardenepura University Ayeshan Sachintha Abeywardena, the third place was taken by Ramya Sivamumar while the joint fourth place went to brothers S.M.Y. Mohamed Hazari and Omar Hazari of Royal College.