About Quiz Bee
History
How the Bee Got its Sting
It was the Decade of the Child, more particularly for the Philippines, the "Decade of the Filipino Child" (1977 - 1986)
It occurred to a lot of people - correctly enough - that new learning programs should reach the child at his most informative years. This includes changing existing learning concepts and introducing new ones to stimulate skills and aptitudes outside academic walls.
In response to this need, a young couple - Rasty and Gay Tayag, launched the Quiz Bee, a program to promote academic excellence, love of country, brotherhood and unity among the country's elementary school children. With the valuable support and cooperation of the Office of the President, Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) now, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Quiz Bee was initiated in 1977 and has grown from a mere tournament into a forum for outstanding school children of the Philippines.
The Project
The Quiz Bee is an academic competition organized by the Quiz Bee Foundation where the country's public and private school students compete in a year - long elimination process that culminates in the National Quiz Bee Grand Finals.
In the words of the Quiz Bee Foundation chairman Mr. Rasty M Tayag, the main objectives of the Quiz Bee Foundation are.
- "To encourage, promote, enhance and develop the intellectual, moral and physical attributes of man, especially the youth of the world;
- To encourage, promote the intellectual faculties of the youth of the world through friendly competitions in sciences, politics, history, culture, law and other subjects of national, regional or international import without regard to color, creed or political orientation;
- To promote, foster, encourage and develop international understanding, fellowship, solidarity, peace, goodwill, cooperation, mutual respect and self - reliance among men, especially the youth of the world;
-To provide a forum and venue for intellectual activities or exercises, discussions or conventions on international topics, or events involving or affecting the youth of the world".
The Buzzword
The term "quiz bee" and its academic competition is 100% Gawang Pinoy.
How did "quiz bee" come about?
In 1976, Mr. Rasty Tayag together with the DepEd (formerly DEC) launched a nationwide elementary spelling contest dubbed "1976 Spelling Bee Contest."
In 1977, after the huge success of the Spelling Bee, educator Mrs. Gay Tayag proposed that the contest should not be limited to spelling and grammar. It should extend to a wider academic scope in the study of science, mathematics, and Philippine history and culture.
It was also decided that an average of ten (10) questions will be asked per subject category (ranging from easy, average, difficult and clincher), making it a short test or a quiz. Mr. Tayag then changed the word "spelling" in spelling bee to "quiz", thus coining the term "quiz bee", and the First National Quiz Bee Contest was born.
In the same year, Mr. Tayag, registered "quiz bee" as a copyright and trademark.
It was also in that year, that the term "quiz bee" was made known in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, when former President Ferdinand Marcos invited the said countries who are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to participate in the ASEAN Quiz Bee to be held in the Philippines.
After almost 2 years in the making, the First ASEAN Quiz Bee was held in Manila in 1979 with the grand champions of the 2nd National Quiz Bee as the country's representatives. During this competition, the subject category of Philippine history & culture was expanded to ASEAN history & culture.
In 1988, the term "quiz bee" was made known to the world thru the launching of the 1st World Quiz Bee with no less than Mr. William Randolph Hearst Jr., publisher of Hearst newspapers and magazines (Washington Times, Chicago Herald, San Francisco Examiner, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar, to name a few) as member of the World Quiz Bee Advisory Board. Again, the subject category of history was expanded to world history & culture.
In 1989, a decade after the founding of the ASEAN Quiz Bee, the Quiz Bee Foundation embarked on the World Quiz Bee, the logical expansion of the program in its present reach and magnitude, billed as the "Summit of the World's Young Geniuses", foreign children contestants came to Manila to meet with their Filipino counterparts in friendly competition, more importantly, to attain a measure of international unity and understanding amongst them.
In 1990, the 1st World Quiz Bee was held in Manila with the grand champions of the 11th National Quiz Bee as the Philippine's representatives.
The Foundation took a giant stride in 1993, in its youth development efforts when it launched the most comprehensive tilt in the history of the Philippine educational system.
In consonance with then President Fidel V. Ramos' vision of development when he launched "Philippines 2000", the Quiz Bee Foundation initiated the involvement of the largest base of the youth sector - thus the Super Quiz Bee; an academic program which now encompasses the elementary, secondary and collegiate levels.
Quiz Bee has become a nationwide tilt for more than 16.5 million students in more than 40,000 private and public schools. The program now serves as a nerve center for educational and cultural exchange, thus allowing challenges and opportunities for the youth's realization of their vast potential - making Quiz Bee therefore, the youth's contribution to "global excellence"!
In recent years, saw the staging of the Quiz Bee Grand Finals outside the confines of Manila. The 18th National Super Quiz Bee Grand Finals was held in Muntinlupa City in 1997 hosted by then Mayor Toting Bunye and the City Council. The 19th National Super Quiz Bee Grand Finals was staged at the Expo Pilipino, Pampanga, the 20th National Super Quiz Bee Grand Finals at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Olongapo City. The 21st - 26th National Super Quiz Bee Grand Finals was at the Development Academy of the Philippines Conference Center & Hotel in Tagaytay City, dubbed as the Home of the Summit of the Super Quiz Bee.
Year 2000 onwards presents a special feature for the succeeding National Quiz Bee. The National Capital Region Division and Regional Championships are held in the leading shopping malls in Metro Manila simultaneous with the staging of the Division and Regional competitions in the other regions throughout the country.
In 2005, the Philippine Daily Inquirer led by its chair Marixi R. Prieto, in its continuous partnership with the Quiz Bee Foundation awarded twenty (20) priceless life - sized masterpiece Guyito (carabao) sculptures done by the country's foremost painters (Malang, Ben Cabrera, Soler, Kidlat Tahimik, Rex Tatlonghari, Steve Santos, and more) to public high schools around the country who ranked highest in the 26th National Super Quiz Bee. During the Award's night at the Ayala Museum, the student awardees, their teacher - coaches, school officials and parents also mingled with the country's top industry leaders (Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Teresita Sy, Robina Gocongwei, Manny Pangilinan, Rico Tantoco to name a few) and had front row seats to a concert with internationally acclaimed Lea Salonga (a former Quiz Bee host herself) and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra.
