The third all- India The Fountainhead Essay Competition was another success. This annual competition has established itself on the calendars of many schools around the country. This year the competition attracted almost eighty entries from 38 schools spread over 18 cities in 15 states of India. Although the number of schools sending in their entries registered a slight drop, the number of entries they sent were about 15% higher.
Equally significant was the high number of queries from teachers and students alike for copies of The Fountainhead as well as The Teacher's Guide prepared by Andrew Bernstein. As always copies of The Fountainhead was made available at a substantial discount. There were a few schools in New Delhi who also screened the video of The Fountainhead , the film, to prepare their students for the competition. Unfortunately, for logistical reasons, it was not possible for us to satisfy similar requests from schools outside of Delhi. However, the increased level of interest reflected in the higher level of participation. Aonther interesting feature of the competition in 2000 was the fact that girls outnumbered the boys by about 2.5 : 1.
Competition flier was sent to about 1100 high schools and junior colleges all over the country by post and email.
The result of the competion is now available on our web site. The top four of the winning essays are available online. The results of contest in 1998 and 1999, are also online, along with some of the winning essays of the past years. We have also placed on line four of the best essay from this year's competition. These will provide a bench mark for the participants in the coming years.
We are now preparing for the competition in 2001. We are trying to improve the quality of our mailing list which has about 1100 high schools spread all over the country. For the first time an attempt was made to promote the contest over the internet and by email to schools. About 200 schools received the competition fliers by email.
In the present year, we are also considering expanding the essay competition to cover college and university students, based on Ayn Rand's other masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged.
A general account of the objectives of this essay competition and an estimate of our budget are available on line. Also available are brief accounts of our experience at Contest Report 1998 and Contest Report 1999. Liberty Institute is a non-profit organisation, and contributions are exempt under the Section 80G of the IT Act. For more information about the activities of the institute please see About US.
With your help, we hope to make The Fountainhead Essay contest an even bigger success in the coming years. We will greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions in this regard. The Ayn Rand Institute has been organising a very successful essay contest in the United States of America for over a decade. Among other organisations involved in creating appreciation of Ayn Rand's ideas is The Objectivist Centre.
We have been reaching out to over a thousand schools in India. Please suggest names and addresses of high schools and junior colleges that you would like to be included in our mailing list. E-mail addresses and web sites of schools will be particularly helpful.
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Copyright 2000. Liberty Institute, New Delhi
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please write to
E-mail: liberty@nda.vsnl.net.in
Address for Correspondance: 96/10 PUSHP VIHAR-I, NEW DELHI - 110 017, INDIA.
Liberty Institute
Julian Simon Centre: 259, (2nd Floor),
J-Block, Saket, New Delhi 110 017. India.
TEL: (91)-(11) 651-2441; (91)-(11) 652-8244
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