A total of 72 school have entered the Sowetan newspaper's first school quiz competition.

Entries closed on March 17 and now it's time to get the ball rolling for the Sowetan-SA Home Loans School Quiz.

A next step will be the selection of  32 schools who will be chosen to participate in this process.

The participating schools will be notified on March 31 and will start receiving Sowetan newspapers weekly as study material for the quiz from April 12.

From each school, four pupils will be chosen to represent their schools. They will be required to read the Sowetan as questions for the quiz will be compiled from the articles published in the newspaper.  

Elimination rounds and quiz dates are scheduled to take place over three consecutive Saturdays – May 13, May 20 and May 27. 

The participating schools will be competing for R95,000 in cash prizes sponsored by SA Home Loans, which is the main sponsor of the competition.  

There is a R50,000 cash prize for the winning school, R30,000 for the first runner-up, and R15,000 for the second runner-up.

Loads of additional sponsored prizes will be given away as well.  

AFHCO-Africa Housing Company is also sponsoring the competition and giving away a R50,000 university bursary, which includes student accommodation, to the winning school. 

The principal from the winning school will identify a pupil from the participating group who will receive full tuition to study at any university of their choice that is affiliated to AFHCO. 

BATA is another sponsor of the quiz, sponsoring 128 pairs of school shoes for every pupil from the 32 schools that will be participating. 

Other sponsors are:

• VAYA footwear which will give away 12 brand new pairs of sneakers for the top three winning schools plus an additional nine pairs for the reader competition. The sneakers have a total value of R25,200;
• Freedom Stationary has sponsored us with 128 stationary pack items such as 2 quire hard cover books, soft cover exercise books, rulers, rubbers, pens and pencils to top up the pupils stationery for second term;
• FUTURELIFE has sponsored us with 500g Futurelife Smart Food and 700g Futurelife Smart Oats Classic towards the 128 goodie bags valued at R 22,735;
• BIC World has donated additional blue pens and pencils towards the 128 learner goodie bags;    
• Bargain Books has donated R15,000 worth of reading books and novels which are age appropriate to the grade 8 to 12 pupils that make it to the top 16 schools in our quarter finals round which will be taking place on the second Saturday of elimination rounds; and
• Eastgate Shopping Centre has sponsored us with R10,000 worth of shopping vouchers which will be awarded to the Top 16 schools that make it to the quarter finals rounds. 

kokam@sowetan.co.za