A Perthshire school pupil has added another impressive plaudit to his burgeoning list of academic accolades.
Strathallan pupil Otari Kakhidze has won the Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize, an annual award for 18-to-25-year-olds writing on a political and philosophical topic.
Otari (19) wrote on this year’s title, “In politics, what could laws do without morals?”, as a Socratic dialogue in “web chat” forum, between himself and Benjamin Franklin.
His achievement can be measured by the fact the runner-up was an Oxford post-graduate.
Otari, from Tbilisi in Georgia, won a prize last year which enabled him to attend the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg.
He is also Georgia’s representative as a member of the European Youth Parliament.
In November, he took part in the Perth Burns Club’s annual schools’ festival, where he won the recitation class (18 and over) and the President’s Award for the best performance of Burns.
Otari said, “I’ve really enjoyed my time in Scotland. I’ve appreciated the friendliness and the humour of the people and feel very comfortable.”
