Nithish T Jacob shows an image of a lake at Ahmedabad on his laptop and asks if one can identify a popular logo that was supposedly inspired by the structure.
The next question says that the development of X is mainly credited to a Japanese businessman Eiichiro Ueyama, who, with the help of his wife, found that a spiral shape helps in longer response time of the product, which is typically made from a dried paste of pyrethrum powder.
These were but some of the questions asked to students at the first edition of Q League, a quiz competition for school students that was held last year in nine districts in Kerala. This year, Q League gets bigger with schools from all 14 districts of the State participating.
Nithish T Jacob, Akhil Ghosh and Sooraj Vijayan
Nithish, a homoeopathy practitioner and counsellor, says most of the patients at his counselling sessions were children. “They were tired of rote learning and wanted something that challenged their brain cells.”
And so, he combined his “doctor knowledge, experience from working with children, passion for education and quizzing” and entered the education sector full-time by starting Q Collective Knowledge Solutions and an ed-tech company called Edfone that is co-funded by Kerala Startup Mission.
Feny Joy and Bichu C Abraham
Nithish and a group of fellow quiz enthusiasts launched Q Collective Knowledge Solutions last year. The company conducts quiz programmes, workshops, and takes classes in schools using quizzes as a tool. They frame questions from any topic under the sun, right from science to pop culture.
“To reinvent the education system and give students a break from traditional classroom learning, there is a dire need to revive the quiz culture in schools and colleges. The innate power of quizzing and its ability to inform, educate and entertain can be used as a tool for soft skills training and can also create a social and general awareness,” feels Nithish, who has been a quizzer right from his school days at Toc H Public School, Kochi, and has been a quiz master for the past 10 years.
Scene at the first edition of Q League
Nithish points out that although there are quiz competitions by the dozen, there are only a handful in the league format.
“A league is not a one-off event. This means children will always be prepared and will keep reading up on the latest because we base a lot of questions on current events. In a way, we are trying to promote reading, especially newspaper reading, through the competition. Also, if it is not my day during one session, I can try and do better in the next one. This way, you are giving out the message to students that there is hope to make a comeback if they persevere.”
- The founders of Q Collective Knowledge Solutions are Dr Nithish T Jacob, Bichu C Abraham, Akhil Ghosh, Sooraj Vijayan and Feny Joy. The coordinators are Jaseer KB, Jameer KB, Dr Arun Ghosh, Aravind Anil and Karthika PB.
- An online internal screening process will help the schools select their best students, this year for Q League. “Usually, whenever there is a quiz competition, the teacher-in-charge picks the participating teams. We wanted to break that as there is an inherent bias in teachers who feel that academically proficient students will do better at such events. This year, the participating schools will be given a free online platform to do the screening. Based on the results, we will announce the top students so that it’s completely transparent.”
- The internal screening for the second edition of Q League will start in the second week of July. Each school can send a maximum of five teams comprising three members each. The teams will compete against other schools from their district in three legs (separate quiz events). The top five teams (decided on cumulative scores) from all 14 districts will then participate in the State final and after further screening, the top eight will participate in the Q League Mega Finals, in which the State’s top three will be decided.
- The competition is open to students from classes VI to X. The Hindu is the media partner of the second edition of Q League.
- A Q League campus edition targeted at college students from across 10 districts will be launched in August.
While some students who were accustomed to the conventional style of quizzing faltered at the start of the competition last year, they were soon able to catch up, “because they have the quizzing frame of mind,” according to Nithish. “Most of them soon realised that our style is easier. For traditional quizzing, you need to memorise a lot of facts; here, it’s more of observation skills, logical ability, lateral thinking and decision making, skills one needs in real life.”
Although Nithish regularly gets requests from parents and schools, especially those in Idukki and Kasaragod to hold quizzing workshops, it has not been possible so far as there are just a handful of trained quiz masters. However, with an online subscription platform which will be launched next month, students can now access questions on a wide range of topics on the Q Collective website. The website also lists quizzing events that are happening across the State.
Says Nithish: “Quizzes need not be dull affairs with the quiz master asking dry questions; they should be a mix of education and entertainment. We hope to help students realise that quizzes can be fun and cool.”
And the answers to the questions: the logo of SBI; mosquito coil.
