NO fewer than 13 students from public schools across the Country have emerged state winners of the 2019 edition of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, National Science Quiz Competition which held in state capitals Wednesday, June 26, Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC group general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, stated in a statement today.

The 13 state winners along with their 24 counterparts from private schools are scheduled to lock horns in the Competition’s Zonal level commencing with South South Zone today; South East Zone, Wednesday, July 3; South West, Friday, July 5; North Central, Monday July 8; North West, Wednesday,  July 10,  and North East, Friday, July 12.

A retired school principal who had served in the Lagos State public school system for close to three decades says the emergence of students from government schools squaring up with their counterparts from private schools, shoulder-to-shoulder, is consequence upon investment inputs of many state governments in the development of secondary school education in recent years.

Taoheed Oyeyemi Alabi, who retired from the services of Lagos State Ministry of Education about two years ago, gave an example of the State’s investment in the training of its teaching workforce and provision of instructional materials and books under a scheme called “Eko Project”, stating that such interventions by many state governments have shored up the quality of teaching and learning in many public schools in recent past.

He explained that now many government schools could boast of the same standard with private schools, adding that contests, such as the NNPC National Science Quiz Competition presented opportunities not only to demonstrate the stuff for which the public schools are made, but to also psyche up students from such institutions and rid them of any complexes they may harbour.

The journey to the 2019 17^th edition of the contest began Thursday, 20^th June with the grassroots leg of the competition administered across local governments in the country.

Ughamadu stated that the 2019 edition was to build on the gains already recorded in previous editions.

Last year’s event was graced by two former heads of State: General Yakubu Gowon and General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

The NNPC National Science Quiz Competition, designed mainly for students in the nation’s secondary schools, was inaugurated in 2000 and limited to participants from the Niger Delta but went national in 2001.

Its objective include:

• To implement a core element of NNPC Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) package
• To promote Science education in the country
• To encourage students in the study of Science and Technology related subjects
• To prepare students for promotional and qualifying examinations
• To build friendship amongst the participating students
• To develop students’ competitive spirit
• To break down long-held stereotypes and engendering a better sense of national being in participating students, through the cross-cultural interactions that the contest offers
• To provide a platform for enlightening the students and the public on the activities of NNPC.

Many of the contest laurels are doing well in their chosen careers, a tracking carried out by the National Oil Company shortly before the Grand Finale of last year’s edition of the competition shows.

The review of the programme also revealed that many of them took to Engineering, Technology and Medicine.

– July 1, 2019 @ 10:35 GMT |