THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the RBI Inter-School Quiz which had 128 teams from Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, Pattom St Mary’s Higher Secondary School walked away with the first prize. But it was no cakewalk for Mahesh B and Ranjith V, the winners.
Despite an early lead of 30 points, they were driven to the edge by Loyola School, Sreekariyam, the runners-up, and St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School.
There were six teams in the final round. As the quiz master Tareq Laskar put it, “This was a tight competition. There was no clear runaway leader, with everyone trying to catch up.”
A quick headcount revealed that, of the 256 participants, the number of girls was only around 60. The irony was that the venue for the quiz was Carmel Girls’ Higher Secondary School.
Questions were thrown at unsuspecting parents who accompanied the participants. They were made to take out coins from their purses and say why different coins had different symbols under the year. (It signifies which minting press it came from.) Many took home chocolates.
This was the last of the four semi-finals to the South Zone Final. The St Mary’s HSS team, with the winners of the competitions held at Kochi, Kottayam and Kozhikode, can now head to Chennai for the South Zone Final in November.
The last lap will be held in Mumbai, where winners from five zones of the country will compete for the title of National Champion.
Former Chairman of ISRO G Madhavan Nair, in his inaugural address, had words of advice for the contestants.
“Wealth in India is concentrated among 10-20 per cent of the population. All of you come from privileged class. When you acquire knowledge, part of your knowledge and the income you earn should be shared with the ones who belong to the 70 per cent.”
RBI Regional Director Nirmal Chand, who presented participation certificates and an RBI Financial Literacy kit to all participants, said that the competition was part of the financial literacy campaign by RBI.
He said that children were the most captive audience. He said that schools were chosen for holding the quiz as children are in a position to tell their parents and friends about what they know of banking, economy and financial inclusion.