Four private secondary schools have swept the 2011 Bayelsa Science Quiz Competition organised by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria’s joint venture last Thursday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The  company put together the third annual quiz competition in a series in collaboration with the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, Intel Corporation, Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN), and Cinfores, an educational non-governmental organisation.

The four were among the seven private schools that slogged it out with 17 public schools in the state in the painstaking rounds of the finals of the academic and intellectual contest for the coveted trophies and cash prizes.

The high-flying private schools are Divine Comprehensive Academy, which clinched the first best spot; Belary Schools, Yenagoa, with the second position; New Total Child Academy, Yenagoa, singing home with the third position; while Winners International Academy, Yenagoa came fourth, ahead of 20 others which scaled the series of sessions, culminating in the final rounds last Thursday in Yenagoa.

Speaking shortly before the presentation of prizes to the winners, Vice President, HSE and Corporate Affairs, Shell Sub-Saharan Africa, Tony Attah, said the competition was aimed at ensuring that children in Bayelsa State develop keen interest in the sciences, adding that the joint venture partners were more than ever before ready to encourage the students to pursue science subjects at tertiary levels of education.

Attah noted that the dividend of the collaboration has been manifest in the good performance and tremendous improvement of students from Bayelsa State in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO), and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations, particularly in the sciences in the last two years.

The vice president stated that as one of the most focus areas in Shell’s social performance delivery strategy, huge investments in education have resulted in several initiatives, including the web-based science and mathematics learning programme called skoool.ng in partnership with Intel Corporation and Education Trust Fund (ETF), the upgrading of infrastructure and construction of new secondary schools, as well as award of scholarships to more than 300 students from Bayelsa State annually.

Also speaking, Bayelsa State Education Commissioner, Prof Tuemi Asuka, said that although Shell has contributed significantly in improvements in the education sector by building classroom blocks and laboratories and distributing textbooks, laboratory equipment and other reading aids to public schools in the state, the company has scored more marks by being the first corporate body to institute a comprehensive capacity building initiative, comprising the teachers in a re-invigorating development programme and the students in a brain-duel science exhibition and competition.”

The education commissioner tasked both beneficiary teachers and students to demonstrate to others at their respective schools that they have added new knowledge and skills to their work, and show courage confidence in their teaching and learning business so as to help in eradicating examination malpractices and cultism.

Nelson Chukwudi