Chandigarh: The Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) organized a felicitation function to award the winning students, teachers and principals from Punjab & Chandigarh at Tagore Theatre here today. The program commenced with the lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest, Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta, Chief Justice (Retd.) of Kerala High Court. Dr. P.S. Jaiswal, Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala who was Guests of Honour , also presented during occasion .
In the awards function, 3 students who were International winners, hailed from Chandigarh and Punjab.
These were Prateek of Maharana Pratap Public School, Kurukshetra who stood first in the 14th National Science Olympiad from class 8 and won a grand prize of Rs One lac. G.M.Rex. Galen Doss of Capt Amol Kalia Fertiliser Model Sr. Sec. School, Naya Nangal topped the 2nd International English Olympiad from class 12 and also won Rs 1 lakh. Charandeep Kapoor of Vivek High School, Chandigarh won a Laptop by becoming first in class 6 in the 11th National Cyber Olympiad. In addition to above, hundreds of state winners were also felicitated, including principals, teachers and students.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mahabir Singh, the founder & Executive Director of SOF said that SOF has been conducting Olympiads for the past over 15 years. Till the past years, only the International winning students were recognized and rewarded.
However, SOF decided to felicitate state toppers in public functions to acknowledge and
motivate performance and holds awards functions in 17 states annually.
Mr. Singh informed that in addition to conducting Olympiads, SOF also undertakes following programs :
Provide an annual scholarship of Rs 10000 each to 150 meritorious girl children from economically weaker section under the Girl Child Scholarship Scheme (GCSS).
Provide scholarship of Rs 5000/ to 100 students excelling in English language.
Send students to Singapore to attend a Computing Program.
Conduct Teachers’ Training Programs, through British Council, to share improved educational techniques with teachers.
These are the largest Olympiads in Asia and during the 2011-12 academic year more than 20000 schools have participated from over 1000 cities and millions of students enrolled for the Olympiads from 14 countries in Asia. SOF awards over 25000 winners from the four Olympiads in Computers, Science, and Mathematics & English.
The total prize value is worth Rs. 5 crore approx. These prizes are distributed among International and State winners and it includes top 3 winners for each class in each of the 4 Olympiads.
