The Winifred Awosika Foundation has rewarded outstanding students at its Annual Secondary Schools’ Challenge held at the Chrisland Pre-Degree College Lagos.
The event which was in its tenth edition had in attendance various schools represented.
In his opening remarks, the representative of the Foundation and Executive Head of Schools, Academics, Chrisland Schools Limited, Mr. Segun Ogunsola said the foundation’s annual secondary schools’ challenge organized every year for schools all over Nigeria was part of their contribution to the society, to develop education, to develop competitiveness among learners and this has been done for ten years.
According to him it was established to encourage healthy rivalry, academic competition and excellence among learners of all cadres and levels across schools.
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“We bring them together in various competition which include Winifred Awosika Chess Tournament, Scrabble Tournament and now this is academics which is a quiz competition covering secondary schools subjects which include, Mathematics, Further Maths; Science and General paper which comprises of English Language, Geography, Economics, among others.
He added that the main focus of the foundation is to bring together students all over the world to have healthy competition, to be challenged, to understand the importance of excellence in everything they do, “and every year we’ve been doing it for 10 years and we always give them fantastic prizes to encourage schools to work hard and as well for them to always looking forward to the competition.
Disclosing that the number of participants increase every year, Ogunsola said top schools that were part of the competition when it started always come every year, adding that it means every school is taking the competition very serious, they place value on it, they place premium on it and they do adequate preparation for it.
“They also see it as a testing ground to bench mark against other schools in terms of their own standard, excellence, performance of their learners and it has been going very well for us as a foundation and that is why today we are gather here again.
Ogunsola disclosed further that there is no particular school that has been winning the competition every year rather it has always been shifting from one to another. “And we can say with all confidence that a lot of learners that came for the competition are doing well out there because we try to track them, he said.
“Some are already graduates in various fields and working in various industries. Some are still in the university, some are the Vice-Chancellors scholars, President’s scholars because we track them to know the impact we have made. Though the competition is a day but there was preparations before it and this has to do with diligence, hard work, excellence and competitiveness in them, he added.
Advising the students, Ogunsola said they must know that the only key to success is hard work, diligence, persistence and they must continue with it to get to greater height.
“And when there are challenges on the way, there must be resilience to be able to move on,” he explained.
Stating how it all started, Ogunsola said Dr. Winifred Awosika the founder of the foundation who clocked 84 years two days to the competition, February 13th established Chrisland Schools Limited in 1977 with just five pupils but today it has 16 schools, A level College and a University in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He added that the competition was part of the founder’s contribution to the society, more especially because of her passion for education.
The guest speaker at the event, Mr. Sofela Bisi, of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) who spoke on the theme: ‘Promoting Academic Excellence’ told the students to be hard working and that they must always put efforts towards achieving academic excellence.
This, he said, can be achieved through thorough job; extensive reading; paying attention to details and the student must continually do the great deed for him or her to achieve success which can lead to excellence in the future.
“Before you can perform excellently well, there must be what we refer to as hard work and it is a habitual thing, things you must do regularly in order not to be involved in examination malpractice,” he said.
In a keenly contested competition which featured 11 schools, namely, Grace High School, Gbagada, Lagos, Crescent International School, Ota, Ogun State; Landmark College, Ikorodu; Whitesands Schools, Lekki, Fountain Heights, Surulere, Lagos; Lagoon Secondary School, Lagos; The Bells Comprehensive Secondary school, Ota; Wellsprings College, Lagos; Dansol High School, Ogba; Vivian Fowler Memorial For Girls, Ikeja and Loral International School, Lagos at the first stage had 8 schools moved to the final.
At the final stage of the quiz competition, The Bells Comprehensive Secondary School, Ota, Ogun State emerged first with 30 points, Crescent International School, Ota, Ogun State came second with 28 points while Grace High School, Gbagada, Lagos came third with 27 points.
Other schools that made the finals were Lagoon Secondary School, Lagos, 4th position with 25 points, Whitesands Schools, Lekki, 5th position with 23 points; Landmark College, Ikorodu, got the 6th position; Fountain Heights, Surulere, Lagos and Wellsprings College, Lagos tie at 7th position.
They were all rewarded at the competition for their performance with the winning school receiving the best prize.
The two representatives of the winning school, Bells Comprehensive Secondary School, Musa Ziyad and Kunle Daudu attributed their success to hard work and continuous studies.
BV.
