March 9, by Elizabeth Kameo. The university environments around Uganda and East Africa are today are filled with excitement and a challenging air thanks to a new educational challenge launched by Celtel East Africa this week across universities in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The best university will win and further defend its stand as the best in the region. Ugandans cannot wait to see if the country"s leading university; Makerere will be able to defend its slogan of "80 Years of Excellence".
Over ten years ago when the Amsterdam based telecommunication company launched services in Uganda, it was basically a telecom company, one that served the elite, top and middle class clients who could afford mobile telecommunications at the time.
 

The first ever televised academic competition

Early this week, Celtel East Africa changed that by reaffirming its support to the development of education in the three East African countries by launching the now famous and much looked forward to, Celtel Africa Challenge. The Celtel Africa Challenge is the first ever televised academic competition for East African university students. These are students from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzanian universities.
Winning students and universities stand to win thousand s of US Dollars in grants, laptop computers and an exciting trip to a top destination on an Island in Africa.
"Celtel Africa Challenge is more than just an academic television quiz, it is about having fun, testing your knowledge, getting to know the talent we have in east Africa and for the students an opportunity to demonstrate their talent amongst their peers," says Celtel Uganda"s Marketing Manager Cesear Mloka.
 

16 teams

The Celtel Challenge is further an extension of the company"s corporate commitment to "Making Life Better" for their customers and is also Celtel"s commitment to developing the youth because they are the future of Africa and will give them an opportunity to showcase and develop their talent.
This year"s inaugural challenge will feature 16 teams of students from universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in a fast-paced quiz programme created by the award-winning creators of University Challenge which is broadcast in the United Kingdom. The Inter-University council for East Africa (IUCEA) is a key educational partner in the progamme.
The selection of universities was made by the programme producer, Richard Reid TV, in consultation with the sponsor, Celtel the Permanent Secretaries of Education in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and the Inter-University Council for East Africa. In future years, it is intended that all universities in the territory will be invited to participate in the programme at their university and that there may be preliminary in-country competitions to determine the teams that advance to the Championship Festival.
 

Wide range of topics

Celtel Africa Challenge is a fast-paced game involving three students on each of two teams. There are four rounds in each programme. During each of the first three rounds, one student from each of the two teams compete head-to-head, playing face-off questions. The players rotate between rounds so that each of the three players will compete in one face-off round. When a player correctly answers the 10 point face-off, that team receives a 20 point bonus question on which they all confer. Each face-off round is approximately 6 minutes in length. After the third round, both teams play the Ultimate Challenge round where they attempt to answer 10 questions in 60 seconds. For more information, consult the game rules and sample questions pages.
In Uganda universities that will take part include Makerere, Ndejje, Nkumba, Islamic University in Uganda and Mbarara University of Technology.
Questions during the quiz will cover a wide range of topic areas including: history, science, African culture, geography, literature, music and current events. Additionally, Celtel Africa Challenge will highlight the excellent educational opportunities at African universities with videos and student profiles.
 

Knock out

Celtel Africa Challenge will be broadcast as a 15-week knock-out tournament, resulting in a final champion. All participating universities and students will receive scholarship monies based on their ranking in the tournament.
The show is not only for students, parents will also be able to join the fun by participating in the weekly home viewer quiz to test the knowledge of parents and those at home.