The Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Fortis Healthcare recently hosted the third edition of the Fortis National Psychology Quiz aptly named ‘Psych-ED’ for school children across the country. Designed for students of classes XI & XII, the quiz aims to test their knowledge on Psychology and its concepts, encouraging students to be a part of this endeavor. Conducted under the guidance of Dr Samir Parikh, director, Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at Fortis Healthcare, the initiative witnessed participation from over 880 schools from 299 cities across the country. The initiative was supported by Raj Gore, COO-South & West, Fortis Healthcare and Dr. Manish Mattoo, zonal director- Fortis Hospitals Bangalore.

The semifinals of the Bangalore Zonal Round was conducted at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road on August 21 at the hospital auditorium, witnessing participation from 36 students from 12 schools. In Season 3 of Psych-ED, participants geared up to step far outside their comfort zones, digging deep into their knowledge and understanding of the human mind. Students from Inventure Academy, Bengaluru battled other schools (DPS Bangalore North, Sishya- Adyar Chennai, Chinmaya International Residential School- Coimbatore, Glendale Academy International- Hyderabad, National Public School HSR- Bengaluru, Lalaji Memorial Omega International School- Chennai, Maharishi International Residential School- Chennai, Bhavans Adarsha Vidyalaya- Ernakulum, Sri Kumaran Children’s Home- CBSE- Bengaluru, Gitanjali Senior School- Hyderabad, NPS International- Chennai ) in the zone to enter the national finals.

The winning team from each zone (Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Kolkata) will qualify for the national final which is scheduled for September 1, 2018 at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon. These qualifiers would be from the participating schools across Mumbai, Chandigarh, Shimla, Mohali, Haridwar, Indore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Gwalior, Lucknow, Jabalpur, Ludhiana, Jammu, Varanasi, Faizabad, Guwahati, Patna, Ernakulam and Hyderabad.

The winner, first and second runners up teams will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000, respectively. Free Comprehensive Psychology internships for all six teams who reach the Grand Finale will also be awarded to students by the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at any of the Fortis centres. GD Goenka University would be offering scholarships to the top three teams of the quiz. The winners of the Zonal Finals would be given gift hampers by Rupa Publications. The winners of the Grand Finale and the first and second runners up would be given educational hampers by Eupjeus Learning.

Speaking about the unique initiative, Dr Parikh said, “The enthusiastic participation by the students gives credence to our vision of making Psychology a household name. Our aim is to engage students, teachers and parents with Psychology and its concepts, ensuring that Mental Health is not a marginalized aspect of health. We are looking forward to a robust competition in the grand finale between the schools who win the Zonal Finals at Delhi in the Grand Finale on September 1, 2018”.

Comments Gore, “Psych-ED is our endeavour to equip and enrich young minds, as we believe that great minds build a great nation. We have received a huge response this year and every year it is becoming bigger and growing larger. We look forward to continue having increasing number of schools join us every year.”

Sarah Abraham, Roshni Ganesha and Ritu Alapat from Inventure Academy, Bengaluru, who qualified for the national finals of Psych-ED 2018, said, “We were so excited about the quiz. It was a really fun experience. And I believe more schools need to be a part of this. We got a lot of help and support from our teachers and parents and the department of mental health also helped us giving us guidance on what to study and where to read things from.”