The Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, has advised students to stay focused in their academic pursuits.
Adefisayo gave this advice at the presentation of awards to winners of the year 2020 essay competition organized for students of primary, junior, and senior secondary schools in the state.
She said, “Stay focus, do well, and don’t allow distraction to get you out of what you want to be. Distractions can stop you from being what you want to be. You can be anything you want to be but it depends on you to stay focused.”
She explained that the essay competition, which was one of the Co-Curricular programmes of the Ministry, was aimed at sharpening the research and writing skills of the students, improving their vocabularies.
The Commissioner added that the essay competition would enable the students to be confident, boost their oratory skills, and have in-depth knowledge of their environment.
“The writers of the essay scripts displayed the gift of deep thought and articulate writing skills to convey ideas, communicate philosophy, recall occurrences and peep into the future which is required in literary works,” she said.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Abosede Adelaja, noted that the essay competition had provided a platform for the students to strive for excellent performance in the art of writing.
She said, “I want to encourage schools to introduce writing clubs in their school as a co-curricular activity. This will help them learn what they couldn’t learn during school hour.”
The Co-curricular director in the Ministry, Mr Babatunde Omibeku, said, “Over 700 participants from all schools in the state participated at the Zonal/District Preliminaries, which thereafter presented 140 eligible competitors from the six Education Districts and SUBEB for the state finals that produced winners in the three categories.”
Samuel Adekola of Oke-Odo Senior High School, Agege; Anuoluwapo Ademisoye of Egbe Junior Grammar School, Alimosho and Omodesire Liadi of Saint Agnes Primary School, Kosofe clinched the Star prizes in the Senior, Junior and Primary categories respectively.
In the Senior Category, Chidera Ikeh of Gbaja Girls Senior High School, Surulere and Maryam Suliamon-Oba of Adebola Baptist Senior School, Surulere took the 1st and 2nd runners up positions respectively.
Fortune Ogueliwu of Lagos State Model Nur/Pry School, GRA and Aisha Muhammed of Baruwa Nur/Pry School, Mushin emerged the 1st and 2nd runners up in the Primary School Category while Noah Olaniyan of Vetland Junior Grammar School, Agege and Chioma Nlebedim of New-Era Girls Junior Secondary School, Surulere clinched the 1st and 2nd runners up position in the Junior Category.
