Put on your Thinking Caps!

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

The students who took part in Sri Lanka HELP university College Law Olympiad 2011. Pictures by Nissanka Wijeratne

Aiming at a sound mind in a sound body while fostering camaraderie among students, the Sri Lanka HELP University College Law Olympiad 2011 unfurled at the Colombo British School recently. It saw 26 schools from Colombo, Jaffna and Panadura battling for the title. The participants were from government, semi-government, private and international schools.

Held for the second year, the event had more than doubled last year’s 12 schools from Jaffna and Colombo. The hall was filled with a buzz of activity and energy as the youths put on their thinking caps and took matters in hand to find the solutions to puzzles and act accordingly in double quick time. One hasty decision or a fatal action will send them reeling back a couple of paces so each move has to be calculated. Four games: ‘Whodunnit?’, ‘What’s Your Verdict?’, ‘Trivia Quiz’ and ‘Best Plea/Best Alibi’ decided their fate and brought the best group up as winners.

The games were put together by the Law and Government Faculty of HELP, an acronym for higher education learning philosophy, located in Malaysia. Encouraging the skills and passion for research among staff and students, HELP is the only private Institution in Malaysia to publish two scholarly journals: the HELP Law Review and HELP Student Law Journal with articles written and edited by the staff and students.

Runners: Holy Family Convent

Champions: asian international School

Developing team spirit

Comparing Law Olympiad to the Olympics Government and Law Faculty Dean Vasantha Punniamoorthy said that the main difference between the two is that Law Olympiad has a legal twist to it. In the spirit of the Olympic Games, which encourages sound mind in a sound body and promotes friendship among nations, the Department of Law adopted a similar motto in the hope that the competition would successfully foster the same ideals of the Olympic Games.

“The main objective of the competition is to encourage analytical and critical thinking skills. We also wish to pique students’ interest in the study of law and related disciplines,” she said. The competition highlights team spirit. Collaboration is the key to success as each member should discuss with the rest of their team and take steps to performing their duty effectively. It is like building a wall with building blocks and if one block is unsteady, the whole structure collapses within seconds.

Interestingly the games do not require knowledge related to law. Logical and analytical thinking is all that they need to make it to the finish line.

“The students were very enthusiastic about taking part in the project. It was a whole new experience to them. We had last year’s winner studying with us. She had decided to return to us to pursue higher studies on the area of her choice,” said HELP University College Customer Marketing Department Assistant Manager Dorothy Chen.

She also added that HELP is keen to provide students the opportunity of following the UK and US degree. This will cut down on the high cost spent on following these programmes in the US or UK.

“Our UK Degree Transfer Programme for Law is affiliated with nine partner universities in the UK. We also have partnerships with many universities in the US, Australia and New Zealand. This year we produced six First Class Honours graduates,” she explained.

The inaugural Law Olympiad was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2000. After its mind-blowing success the team decided to expand its wings to many other countries as well as make it an annual event.

The winners received 50 percent tuition fee scholarships for years one and two for the UK Degree Transfer Programme (Law) and the American Degree Transfer Programme and years one, two and three to study in numerous HELP Group programmes. They are given a Challenge Trophy and individual medals. The First Runners Up and Second Runners Up too were awarded individual medals. All the students got certificates of participation. The 2011 Law Olympiad is organised by Seekers Worldwide (Pvt) Ltd and sponsored by HELP University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.