Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Registration for InterswitchSPAK, a national science competition in Nigeria in its fourth edition, has commenced and will end on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
A statement issued by Interswitch, Africa’s leading integrated payment and digital commerce company, said secondary schools in the country can visit the InterswitchSPAK portal to register between six and 20 of their best science students in Year 11 or Senior Secondary 2 (SS2) for the competition.
InterswitchSPAK is a competition designed to re-ignite the study of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects among secondary school students.
As part of the registration process, co-educational schools are required to register at least two female students as part of the selected students. The registered students will participate in the online qualifying examinations from the comfort of their schools, homes or the preferred location. The top 81 students will then proceed to the finale and battle for the crown of Nigeria’s Best STEM Student.
Schools interested in registering their best science students should visit https://www.interswitchspak.com/ to begin the process.
To write the qualifying examination, candidates can select from a choice of three days from Thursday, May 19, to Saturday, May 21, 2022, from any time between 8 am-6 pm.
The Chief Marketing and Communication Officer of Interswitch, Ms Cherry Eromosele, encouraged parents to give their children the right push towards a bright future in STEM.
“The dream we had about encouraging more students, especially girls, to take up STEM subjects is gradually materialising. The immense success of this life-changing contest in the past three editions has encouraged us to do more in supporting the education of young people in the sciences.
“We also encourage teachers, school administrators, parents and guardians not to relent, but to keep pushing for the best for these gems by getting them registered.
“We believe these students can shape their future by taking hold of the opportunities that come their way and making the best of them. We are quite enthusiastic about the innovations and great changes these young people will bring to the world,” she said.
The total coveted prize is N12.5 million worth of university scholarships for the top three winners, with the first prize winner receiving a N7.5 million tertiary scholarship spread over 5 years, a laptop and monthly stipends. The second prize is N4 million spread over 3 years, plus a laptop and the third prize is a N1 million scholarship for 1 year.
The last edition saw Jubril Dokun, a 16-year-old student of Brainfield College, Salolo, Lagos State, emerging as the winner, while the duo of 16-year-old Ayanlade Jesuferanmi of Obafemi Awolowo University International School, Ile-Ife and Omoniyi Qudus of Scholars Universal Secondary School, Ota came second and third, respectively.
