Jeremiah OYELEKE
Owode Community Grammar School, Oke-Owode, Ogbomoso, has emerged winner of the 2021 Femi Onireti Public Secondary Schools Quiz Competition.
The school, founded in 2003, took the first position with 22 points, beating 19 other schools, with Areago Community Grammar School coming second with 21 points. School of Science, Ogbomoso, came third with 18 points.
The winner was awarded an exotic laptop, fifty thousand naira (N50, 000) cash prize and a commemorative plaque.
The second position got a laptop also, in addition to twenty thousand naira (N20, 000) cash prize and award plaque; while the third position went home as well with a laptop, twenty thousand naira (N20, 000) and 3rd position plaque.
This is just as the two schools that tied on 17 points to jointly take fourth positions and the sixth, each was awarded a sum of five thousand naira (N5, 000).
The cash prizes are to be pocketed by the students who represented the winning school.
The keenly contested quiz competition, first of its kind by Femi Onireti Foundation in Ogbomoso, and held at Ogbomoso Grammar School Hall, for public secondary schools in Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Oriire local governments, went through three stages to produce six finalists.
The first stage consisted of 20 objective tests covering English language, mathematics and general knowledge/current affairs, with a time span of fifteen minutes. Nine schools emerged to slug it out in the second stage, which was even more dramatic.
The English Comprehension question gave two conflicting instructions; first asking the competitors to attempt all questions, the second and last “order” unequivocally demanding that none of the questions be attempted. This obviously was to test students’ inclination towards familiarizing themselves with instructions before plunging into writing answers. Not unexpectedly, the nine students flunked this round as they all answered the questions.
The outcome of this round brought a stalemate and so, the organizers resorted to using the six candidates that got the highest scores in the first round, thus, Owode Community Grammar School, School of Science, Ogbomoso Grammar School, Millennium Model Secondary School, Areago Community Grammar School, Nurudeen Grammar School and C.A.C. Grammar School emerged the finalists.
The final round was the traditional quiz with bonuses obtainable (bonuses attracting penalty of minus two for any missed attempt). Cumulative scores were used to determine the final scores, which eventually produced the winners.
Nurudeen Grammar School and Ogbomoso Grammar School tied in fourth position with 17 points each while C.A.C. Grammar School notched 16 points to come sixth.
Proceedings and scores were projected on a big screen and white board in an attempt to make it transparent.
Declaring open the competition earlier, Mrs. Abosede Olabode, Zonal Inspector of Education, Ogbomoso, commended Oyo state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, for what she described as the governor’s provision of affordable and accessible qualitative education in the state.
Mrs. Olabode noted that the quiz competition was an effort geared towards enhancing the growth of education in the city expressing hope that students would avail themselves of the opportunity in the interest of their future endeavours. This is just as she expressed appreciation to the sponsor of the event.
“The present administration in the state under the able leadership of Engineer Seyi Makinde has embarked on the provision of qualitative education that is affordable and accessible to our teeming population in the state. Many philanthropists have partnered with the government in achieving these laudable goals.
“Today’s event is to further enhance the promotion of education in Ogbomoso zone 1 comprising Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Oriire local governments through quiz competition among students of public secondary schools.
“It is hoped that the programme will go a long way to assist our students in preparing them for future challenges..
“The effort of Femi Onireti Foundation is highly appreciated and I pray that God will continue to bless and enrich the foundation.”
In his closing remark, the Executive Director of Femi Onireti Foundation, Mr. Femi Onireti also hailed Governor Seyi Makinde “for his tremendous work in the education sector in the state. To me, the competition had produced neither winner nor loser, what is important is that the educational sector is enhanced in Ogbomoso area by any means possible.”
Onireti added, “We want to encourage these little ones to study hard and make sure they take their education seriously.”
Hon. Oyedokun Timothy, immediate past caretaker chairman of Ogbomoso South local government and who is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the council area in the forthcoming local government election, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the competition while commending Onireti for his effort.
Timothy charged the students to be serious with their studies, stressing “education is the best channel through which you can have a future with great potentials.”
Winner of the competition, Lawal Ajarat, in a chat with newsmen said she was extremely happy winning the competition while expressing gratitude to the organizers for the opportunity.
Also, Emmanuel Favour who came second encouraged students to always seek knowledge, adding, “Students should not be weary of reading, we should realize that education is the best legacy for us.”
Favour also thanked and prayed for the organizers.
Meanwhile, Onireti while responding to newsmen’ questions, debunked the notion that he organized the programme to create awareness for his aspiration to contest an elective post in 2023.
He stated, “We have been doing programmes like these in the past even before my advent in politics, I floated the foundation long time ago, to give back to the society little from what God has blessed us with.
“If it were to be politically inclined, you would have seen a lot of politicians in the programme, you know how political events always are. Or have you seen political people here? More so, non-politicians were contracted to organize the programme. It is just to complement Governor Seyi Makinde’s effort in his free education policy.”
