Seventeen regional champions from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao including the National Capital Region are expected to be in Manila anytime today for the national finals of the Philippine Statistics Quiz (PSQ) which will be held at the Assembly Hall of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Wednesday, December 8, 2010.
The PSQ aims to assess the competency and skills of college freshmen in statistics as acquired from high school and to promote public awareness and appreciation of statistics. This is the 19th year that the contest will be jointly undertaken by the National Statistics Office, the primary statistical arm of the government, and the Philippine Statistical Association, Inc. (PSA), a non-stock, non-profit foundation for scientific advancement, since it was launched in 1992. The Commission on Higher Education has been endorsing the annual competition since 1994.
Participants to the 19th PSQ National Finals are Filipino first-time college freshmen representing various colleges and universities who emerged as champions from the regional eliminations simultaneously held last November 23 in each of the 17 regions all over the country and have met the required cut-off cumulative score as set forth in the contest mechanics. The national finalists will compete in three exciting and heart-pounding sequential rounds of questions and answers on statistical concepts, theories and problems. In the last and final round, points will be doubled and the resulting scores will determine the top-five national winners.
Last year, Abdel Aziz A. Alfad, a freshman BS Mathematical Sciences student from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, topped the national finals of the 2009 PSQ held at the Ramon Magsaysay Hall of the Social Security System Building in Quezon City. He brought home, among others, the first ever PSQ national championship trophy for Region 9 and a cash prize of PhP25,000. His coach, Abner Alvarez, was also given a special recognition and PhP12,500 cash reward.
It was the third time for Ateneo to dominate in the PSQ National Finals. In 1993 and 2005 Ateneo de Manila also bagged the national championship trophy. It was, however, the University of the Philippines that earned the recognition of grabbing the first-ever PSQ title and remained to be the campus which has produced the most number of first placers - UP Los Baños - five (5); UP Diliman - two (2); and, UP in the Visayas (Tacloban) got one. Meanwhile, Saint Louis University in Baguio City is the only other educational institution that have notched the PSQ national finals more than once (1999 and 2008).
At stake for the top five placers in this year’s national competition are cash prizes, trophies and several gift items from various sponsors and donors. In addition, the regional champions and their respective coaches are provided by the PSQ organizers with roundtrip fares (except for the delegates from NCR), modest accommodation, and allowances for the duration of the National Finals. Moreover, all PSQ national finalists, the colleges/universities where they are currently enrolled as well as the high schools where they graduated from will also be given certificates of recognition.
This year's contest is a collaborative effort of sponsors and partners from the government and the private sector. Sponsors from the government are the APO Production Unit, Inc.; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Labor and Employment-Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, Development Bank of the Philippines, Statistical Research and Training Center, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, National Statistical Coordination Board, and Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
Major partners from the private sector are Unisys Philippines, Inc.; SM Business Services/Retail, Incorporated; Pilipinas Teleserv, Inc.; AGB Nielsen Media Research; Adriano Laquindanum (JACALA); Achievers Security Agency of the Philippines; Census Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative; Census Provident Fund, Inc. and, UP-Statistical Research Foundation, Inc.