Sixteen-year old Idowu Sonoiki of Ikotun Senior High School, Ikotun in the Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area of Lagos State is the next One-Day Governor of the state for 2015 having emerged winner of the 2015 Spelling Bee Competition in the Secondary School Category.
The Ogun State indigene SS1 student beat 15-year-old Faaizi Abdullaidi of Omole Senior High School, Ojodu and 14-year-old Fehinti Dahunsi of Lagos State Senior Model College, Kankon to the second and third positions respectively.
The state Commissioner for Education, Olayinka Oladunjoye, noted that students have taken full advantage of the opportunity provided by the competition to excel not only in the competition but in also in their studies as evidenced in the marked improvement in academic performance.
Oladunjoye said: “It is heartwarming to note that the goals of the competition have been achieved as evidenced in the performances of our students at various external exanimations. Again, I am gladdened by the fact that many of the past winners of the competition are now successful men and women in their chosen and enviable careers such as Medicine, Engineering and Law among others.”
Oladunjoye expressed her pleasure at the strong awareness the Spelling Bee Competition has generated among students and pupils at all levels in the state, adding that past winners of the competition have continued to sustain the tradition of excellence that the competition is associated with.
According to the Commissioner: “The overall goals of the Competition are to help students improve their spelling skills; increase their vocabulary and develop correct English usage; create good reading habits that will lead to better academic performance; and boost the confidence of participants with a view to preparing them for future endeavours.”
In her address of welcome, the Director-General of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ronke Soyombo, noted that the Spelling Bee competition is important because it raises the profile of reading and cements the connection that is shared between sounds and letters.
Soyombo’s words: “Learning spelling words is not only important to a child’s future but helps to lay the basic foundation that every student will need throughout their educational life.”
The Director-General noted that the Office of Education Quality Assurance is not unmindful of its responsibility of ensuring that quality and high standards are attained in schools, thus the Office has held a workshop for all stakeholders in both the private and public sectors for the review of instruments and the regular monitoring of the quality of teaching/learning and leadership/management of secondary schools in order to support them to improve learners’ performance especially in external examinations.
According to her, all these efforts will sooner rather than later reflect positively in no small way in the students’ performance in the West African Examinations Council results among other examinations.
Among the dignitaries present at the event were the representatives of the First Lady of the state, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola, Ladun Ogunbanwo; the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Wahab Alawiye-King; the representative of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Prof. Kolawole Raheem; and the Head of Department Devices, Etisalat, Olayiwola Onafowokan.