The University of Nigeria Secondary School, has emerged as winner of the Chevening Science Competition held in Enugu.
This is as Holy Rosary College Enugu and Command Day Secondary School emerged the first and second runners-up respectively.
The two-day competition held at the CBN Centre of Excellence for Economics and Finance, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, featured 25 secondary schools, with seven making it to the grand finale.
The seven schools that featured in the finals include Spring of Life Secondary School, Federal Government College, Holy Rosary College, New Haven Secondary School, University of Nigeria Secondary School, Command Day Secondary School and Day Secondary School, Independence Layout.
Speaking after the competition, the Project Director, Chevening Alumni, Mr Lucky Nonyelum said that the competition was an initiative that seeks to empower students by equipping them with the ability to use science to explore opportunities, predict outcomes, interpret results, and contribute to technological development in Nigeria.
Nonyelum noted that the competition was sponsored by the Chevening Alumni Association of Nigeria in partnership with the British High Commissioner, Inspire Initiatives for Inclusive STEM Education and supported by the Ministry of Education, Enugu State.
He explained further that Chevening is a United Kingdom-sponsored post-graduate scholarship, adding that “the idea of Chevening Science Competition is that we are trying to promote Chevening within Nigeria.”
“We are also trying to promote what the Alumni Association is also doing in Nigeria. We are here to promote what is happening and also to promote the Chevening scholarship within the South-East of Nigeria. Because the idea of a sponsorship is that once you go to the UK you could come back to Nigeria and give back to the country in any way you can, " he said.
“I just came back to Nigeria in January and we began this project in Nigeria, targeting the South-East states of Enugu, Imo and Anambra. This is a pilot project. This competition is for senior secondary school students. The idea is to promote what we call scientific literacy, to enable students to use scientific principles to solve problems within their environment.
“Take for instance the issues of pollution and water scarcities in Enugu. How can students use the principle of science to solve these problems? That is what we wanted to do. So the competition is not just basically to tick boxes, but actually to improve scientific literacy.”
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