The Interswitch Group has announced the commencement of another edition of its national science competition, InterswitchSPAK 3.0, in Nigeria. It implored secondary schools to visit the InterswitchSPAK portal to register their best science students in Grade 11 or Senior Secondary 2 (SS2) for the competition.
InterswitchSPAK is an annual Pan-African competition aimed at re-igniting and incentivizing the study of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects among secondary school students.
For registration, each school is required to present its best science students in SSS2.
Each school 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, 28 and Saturday, 29 May 2021 any time between 8 am-6 pm.
Cherry Eromosele, Group Chief Marketing, and Communication Officer, Interswitch, 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 coronavirus pandemic. She also encouraged more girls to participate in this third edition of the ongoing registration.
She said: “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. We believe that the year ahead will be very exciting.”
The coveted prize is N12.5 million worth of university scholarship for the top three winners. The first prize winner gets an N7.5 million tertiary scholarship spread over five years, a laptop, and monthly stipends. The second prize is N4 million spread over three years and a laptop and the third prize is N1 million for one year.
The last edition saw Oyindamola Aje, a 16-year-old student of Jesuit Memorial College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, emerging as the 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.
The InterswitchSPAK 3.0 registration portal will close on Thursday, May 27, 2021.
