St Gabriel’s takes home $4,000 cash prize as champion of ST’s What’s The News? quiz competition

SINGAPORE – It was go big or go home.

When the St Gabriel’s Secondary School team chose to use their game card in the final round of The Straits Times’ What’s The News? quiz competition, they knew the risk. Answer the next question correctly, and they would rise to first place. Answer wrongly, and they fall to last. The shouts from their schoolmates in the audience convinced them.

Team member Collin Soelaiman, 16, said: “We went big.”

The question: “When anti-corruption protests toppled the government, Gen Zs suggested her name – and made Sushila Karki the country’s first female prime minister. Which country did she lead?”

The team answered “Nepal” correctly and emerged victorious over three other teams in the contest on May 26, to resounding cheers from their supporters in the auditorium. The team took home a $4,000 cash prize and a trophy as the first-place winner.

Thorsten Ng, 15, of the St Gabriel’s team said of his school’s supporters: “I feel that their support actually is the reason why we are standing here (as champion).”

Victoria School came in second, while the School of Science and Technology (SST) was third, and Presbyterian High School, fourth.

The second-, third- and fourth-place teams received $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, and a trophy each.

This was the second time that ST held the interactive current affairs quiz competition. The event is supported by the Ministry of Education, while the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) is a partner.

The competition’s preliminary round ran in April, with over 6,000 students from more than 70 schools competing in an individual online quiz to assess their knowledge of current affairs.

It was followed by an exciting semi-final round on May 14 that merged current affairs questions with arena-style games, from which the four finalists emerged.

Energy was high at the finals hosted by stand-up comedian, actor and emcee Rishi Budhrani, as the teams of three warmed up and settled in for the contest held at the SPH Media auditorium.

Teams first competed in a rapid-fire multiple-choice round, with only eight seconds to answer each question. Returning finalist Presbyterian High School ended the round in the lead.

Teams were then tested on their critical thinking and public speaking skills when they were given just 15 minutes to create a three-minute presentation using a single slide to address a randomly assigned question.

Finally, teams played a short answer round where they could select from a board of hidden questions worth different points – the higher the points, the trickier the question.

Game cards that allowed teams to redirect the question to another team or double the number of points an answer was worth added a layer of strategy to the game, which led to a nail-biting final round as teams rose and fell from the top in quick succession.

One example was Victoria School, which used a game card to rally from fourth place to an overall second-place finish.

A member of the team, Balaprathyush Damodharan, 16, said: “Going from fourth to second really gave us confidence, and I think it gave us motivation to continue. I think it’s a lesson – that we can do it no matter what.”

Looking back at the competition, Mr Mohammad Firdaus Sulaiman, 30, a history and social studies teacher at SST, said he was proud of how far his students had come.

Pointing out how they had gone up against tertiary institutions in the semi-finals, he said, “I think they had a lot of composure under pressure, amid all the cameras and media attention, which is quite impressive for their age.”

At the close of the competition segment, Mr Jaime Ho, editor of The Straits Times, emphasised the importance of journalism to the country, saying: “Over the past 180 years, The Straits Times has taken on a role in our society to not just record the important things that happen in Singapore, which eventually become part of our history. 

“Another function is to be a public service to readers to help highlight important issues, interpret them through a Singaporean lens, and ultimately to bring Singaporeans together like we’ve done today, with both commonly held truths and the diverse viewpoints that make us so unique.

“There is no better way to do this than to help all Singaporeans, especially (the youth), to understand the news, and see that it can also be fun.”

Mr Zhong Kangtai, assistant director of planning and development in the DrugFreeSG Office, said: “CNB supports the WTN (What’s The News?) platform to encourage the building of critical thinking and media literacy skills that are increasingly essential for today’s youth to navigate the increasingly complex information space.”

He noted that the student participants showed a “good awareness of the multifaceted issue of drug abuse”, and being able to look more deeply at issues gives young people the agency to respond, and make informed decisions and good choices.

In her speech, guest of honour Jasmin Lau, Minister of State for Education and for Digital Development and Information, spoke about the importance of being selective in consuming media.

“I confess that I think I knew one answer out of 16 on the screen. Did I feel bad? A little bit, but I think it’s also made me realise how impossible it is to know everything. Even if you read The Straits Times every day, you can’t know what’s going on around the world every day.

“So, all of us need to be quite selective about the sources of news we read and what we scroll, because you only have limited brain capacity to absorb information.”

Ms Lau and Mr Ho gave away the prizes.

What’s The News? will also be organising educational assembly programmes for six selected schools in Term 3, after the June holidays, to further engage students on current affairs.