Kasie Abone
After a keenly contested quiz competition to wrap up this year’s edition of PZ Cussons sponsored Chemistry Challenge for secondary schools pan Nigeria, Aderibigbe Eniola Peace from Babcock University High School beat five other finalists to emerge the overall winner.
Miss Aderibigbe was rewarded with N1million, a trophy, a medal and a year supply of Premier, a premium soap brand from the company.
The first and second runners up were Adele Chika of Jephthah of Comprehensive Secondary School, Port Harcourt and Ojuba Mezisashe Shalom of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja who received N750,000 and N500,000 respectively.
In addition to their cash prizes, the schools that produced the top three winners also were given laboratory equipment.
Other finalists including Andrew Ulan Sylvia of Premiere Academy, Abuja, Ugboma David Rex of Makun High School, Sagamu and Ndidi Christabel Chukwufumnanya of Demonstration Staff Secondary School, Asaba all received consolation prizes of a year supply of Premier soap.
The teachers of the winning students were not also left as their efforts were rewarded with cash prizes.
Sponsored by Premier soap the national competition kicked off at three examination hubs in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Apart from this being the first time the competition went national; it was also the first time three females qualified for the finals.
And for the first time a female, Ojuba Mezisashe Shalom, of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja; scored the highest during the practical stage.
Over 7500 students competed in the first stage of the competition in an online CBT quiz across Nigeria. Top 600 candidates qualified for a controlled CBT – 200 from each region; Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos. Thirteen candidates qualified from each region to sit for a practical exam during the third phase of the competition.
An Advisory Board led by Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, a Chemistry professor from University of Ibadan were in charge of collating questions and managing proceedings during the exams to ensure utmost quality.
Prof. Osibanjo, in his remark said the competition was designed to promote the study of chemistry among students while demonstrating the relevance of chemistry in the society through an open competition amongst public and private secondary school students adding that honestly and integrity were the competition’s hallmark.
The PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge was endorsed by the Lagos state Ministry of Education, Chemistry Society of Nigeria (CSN), Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) and the National Parents and Teachers Association (NAPTAN).
Since inception in 2013, the competition, an initiative of PZ Cussons Foundation, which aimed to improve teaching and learning of Chemistry amongst secondary schools in Nigeria, has grown to an all-time high of thirteen thousand students who registered for the 2019 edition.
According to Head of Marketing, PZ Cussons Consumer, Mr. Charles Nnochiri ‘The overall objective is to continue to make PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge the number one platform for the support of Chemistry learning in Secondary Schools across Nigeria.’
