Modelled on ‘Pentathlon’ – a popular reality show overseas – the competition is expected to involve 2,000 schools in the preliminary round, from which students from 48 schools are to be chosen to advance to the subsequent rounds.
The competition’s objective is to search for the most talented school children based on their presentation skills, intuitive skills, general knowledge, IQ, team spirit and mathematical skills. Participants would be aged 13-15 years.
The Pentathlon programme is to be telecast at 6pm on Sundays for 46 weeks on Sirasa TV for Sinhala students and for 36 weeks on Shakthi TV for Tamil students.
The programme is expected to commence in January 2016.
The 48 schools that will progress from the preliminary round will consist of 18 from Colombo, eight from Kandy, eight from Galle and 14 representing the rest of the country.
As the Official Banking Partner of Pentathlon, Commercial Bank’s support for the programme will be under 'Arunalu' the Bank’s popular children's savings account, which also actively promotes and rewards academic excellence with cash awards for high achievers at the Year 5 scholarship examinations.