Students display literary skills to emerge winners at Mike Okonkwo essay competition
Esigbone Ferdinard, a 16 year old pupil of Roshallom International Secondary School, Egbeda, Lagos, Oluwaseun Aremu of Shepherd International College Ado-ekiti, Adeola Ifeoluwa from Chrisfield College, Itamaga, Ikorodu have emerged first, second and third respectively at the 2019 Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition.
Akachi Ezeigbo, chief examiner, while announcing the 2019 results of the competition, discloses that a total of six hundred and twelve (612) essay entries were sent in for assessment, representing a drop of about 28 percent when compared to the eight hundred and forty-eight (848) that were received and assessed last year.
Ezeigbo pointed out that the drop in the number of entries compared to last year arises in part from new management strategies introduced by the organisers to ensure that only credible entries are sent in for assessment.
“Based on the positive feedback and to further the institutionalisation of the Bishop Mike Okonkwo Lecture Series, we urge the organisers to put the winning entries in a book form, as had been done to the adult version of lectures, in order to make the materials more portable and accessible to teachers and students”, Ezeigbo said.
Speaking further, Ezeigbo opines that the teaching of responsible internet usage in secondary school curriculum has become very paramount and of necessity submitting that,
“The fact that almost any material is available and accessible via a click makes a compelling case for us to introduce the teaching of responsible Internet usage in the secondary school curriculum. We recommend a review and expansion of the syllabus of a subject like civic education to include teaching students
to understand that plagiarism violates Intellectual Property (IP) rights, and that referencing the literatures they consult as they make their points is a key aspect of their academic development.”
In the first round of the 2019 edition of the competition a total of 612 entries were received from Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across different states of the federation and the Topic was Justice as an Instrument of Enduring Peace in Nation building while the second round topic was Entrenching Tolerance as Solution to Nigeria’s Ethnic and Religious Crises.
For coming top in this year’s competition, Esigbone Ferdinard will get a cheque of N100, 000, a personal Laptop, a trophy, a plaque, while the school gets three sets of Computer and a printer.
Oluwaseun Aremu, who came second, will go home with a cheque of N75, 000, a plaque and the school will get two sets of computers and a printer. For emerging the third position in this year’s competition, Adeola Ifeoluwa will go home with a cheque of N50, 000, a plaque and the school gets a Computer set. The other winners will get a consolation price of N20, 000.
The prices for the winners of the 16th Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition for Secondary Schools in the country will be presented at this year’s Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture, at the Shell Hall Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos, on Thursday September 5, 2019. The theme for this year’s lecture is “Justice as an Instrument of Enduring Peace in Nation Building”. The Lecture will be chaired by Folake Solanke (SAN) while the lecture will be delivered by Femi Falana (SAN).