The team of Sopron assembled from students of Daniel Berzsenyi Lutheran High School and Vocational School won the national finals of the quiz series called ‘Competing through Rights’, which was held in Budapest last Friday. Initiative of Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Public Administration and Justice, the competition was launched in October 2013 on the occasion of the European Year of Citizens with more than 90 participating teams, out of which 9 ended up in the finals.
At the finals, Tibor Navracsics stressed in his opening speech that there is no democracy without conscious citizens and this game helps to create such awareness in students. As the Minister pointed out, “with respect to the European Year of Citizens we wanted young people having a chance to prove their knowledge on rights and about the European Union”.
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The language of the series was English and it was aimed to make high school students between the age of 15 and 17 discover the essentials of the EU thus becoming familiar with its operation and knowing what it means to be a European citizen, so as what are the basic rights granted by the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The call for competition issued by the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice was answered by almost 70 secondary schools from different areas of Hungary. During the first turn of the series (for which a total of 94 teams registered from various regions of Hungary), students had to account for their essential knowledge on the EU in the form of an online English test.
During the next round, called ‘Me as an EU citizen’, being the online regional finals in English, the succeeding 39 high school teams had to produce a short film before filling the quiz, in which movie they showed what does the EU mean for their settlement.
The national finals, taking place in Budapest, saw 9 teams with 6 people pitting against each other’s knowledge on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Young people arrived from cities of Budapest, Szombathely, Sarkad, Székesfehérvár, Fehérgyarmat, Sopron, Pécs, Eger, and Nyíregyháza and were given a task for which not only in-depth knowledge of the Charter, a high command of English, but cooperation between team members and creativity were needed. The full-day program was hosted by Anna Nagy, the spokesperson of the Erzsébet Programme.
Among several foreign teams, the winner will represent our country at the international finals, which will take place in Budapest on March 7, 2014.
The grand prize is a four-night and five-day long trip to Brussels, which will be organized this spring.
(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)
