The Ethics Olympiad was founded in 2013 by Matthew Wills, the then Head of Philosophy, Values and Religious Education at Hale School in Perth WA. Originally trials were conducted with schools in several US states using video conferencing technology and Skype to bring the schools together. The trial was a great success. Thereby the Ethics Olympiad was born and has been run since then annually with a growing number of schools involved.
An Ethics Olympiad is a competitive yet collaborative event in which students analyze and discuss real-life, and timely, ethical issues. It differs from a debate in that students are not assigned opposing views rather, they defend whatever position they believe is right and win by showing that they have thought more carefully, deeply, and perceptively about the cases in question. The event encourages and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking skills, civil discourse, international engagement, and an appreciation for diverse points of view.
In 2018 we trialed a new Ethics Olympiad face to face format at Scotch College in Melbourne with ten schools participating. We received a great deal of positive feedback from this event and in May, 2019 we ran the same format in each capital city in Australia and New Zealand. This was followed up in November with a similar but age specific program of Olympiads for Middle School students. (11-14 year olds) Both programs were very popular with over 1700 participating students.
In 2020 with the arrival of COVID restrictions the event was moved successfully online. Instead of participating teachers judging at the event we secured post-graduate Philosophy students, lecturers and teachers to be judges. With the online format we have been able to expand our offering to include Junior School students (9-12 year olds), remote and regional schools and most recently tertiary students.
Professor (Emeritus) Robert Ladenson the founder of the US Ethics Bowl wrote "The Ethics Olympiad makes an exciting and educationally important international experience integral to an academic competition incorporating core elements of both the Ethics Bowl and the Philosothon, two innovative approaches to teaching ethics hugely popular with students and acclaimed widely by educators. I anticipate great success for the Ethics Olympiad."
In 2021 we expanded the event to include students in Singapore and Hong Kong. These have joined many hundreds of schools in New Zealand and Australia participating annually in the event. 2023 was a big year for the Ethics Olympiad with many more participating schools at all age levels, lots of new member schools, the successful introduction of a case writing competition, hosting licenses and further expansion into India and Canada. 2024 promises to be an even better year for the Ethics Olympiad.
