By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Registrations for the 2021 edition of a prestigious science competition organised by Interswitch Group called InterswitchSPAK 3.0 have commenced.
With this development, secondary schools can visit the InterswitchSPAK portal, https://www.interswitchspak.com/, to register their best science students in Grade 11 or Senior Secondary 2 (SS2) for the competition. The registration portal will close on Thursday, May 27, 2021.
Each school is required to present its best science students in SSS2 and can register a minimum of six and a maximum of 10 students.
However, for mixed schools, at least two female students must be among the selected students.
Every registered student will participate in the qualifying examination online, from their schools, homes or any convenient space. The top 81 students will proceed to the finale to battle for the crown of Nigeria’s Best Science Student.
For the qualifying examination, there are two choices of days to pick from between Friday, May 28 and Saturday, May 29, 2021, any time between 8am-6pm.
The InterswitchSPAK national science competition is an annual Pan-African contest aimed at re-igniting and incentivizing the study of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects among secondary school students.
The Group Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Interswitch, Ms Cherry Eromosele, expressed her excitement about the new edition.
She stated that the competition was back, bigger and better after the one-year hiatus occasioned by the disruptive impact of the global pandemic. She also encouraged more girls to participate in this third edition of the on-going registration.
“At Interswitch, we are committed to inculcating knowledge, aptitude and confidence, with a focus on improving the standard of education in Nigeria.
“We are very passionate about encouraging more students, especially girls, to take up STEM subjects. The good news is that we have seen an increase in the number of girls participating in the competition.
“We encourage teachers, school administrators, parents and guardians to ensure their students are registered. I also want to encourage the students to take hold of this opportunity to pursue their dreams. It is our belief that the year ahead will be very exciting,” she stated.
The coveted prize is N12.5 million worth of university scholarship for the top three winners. The first prize winner gets N7.5 million tertiary scholarship spread over 5 years, a laptop and monthly stipends. The second prize is N4 million spread over 3 years and a laptop and the third prize is N1 million for 1 year.
The last edition saw Oyindamola Aje, a 16-year-old student of Jesuit Memorial College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, emerging as winner, while the duo of 15-year-old Oluwatobi Ojo and Onyekachi Madumere (both of Apt Scholar Universal College, Ogun State) came second and third, respectively.
Modupe Gbadeyanka