The curtains are gradually falling on Globacom’s “Glo Innov8” National STEM competition for girls in Senior Secondary Schools across the country as the three top finalists have emerged for the final event to be held at the Mike Adenuga Centre (Alliance Francais), Ikoyi, Lagos.
20 schools were selected from over 200 schools that entered for the competition, with 10 of them later slugging it out for a space in the finals. The three schools that made it to the grand finale are Ephraim High School, Isolo campus, Lagos; Regina Pacis International School, Onitsha, Anambra State; and Peakfield Academy, Jos, Plateau State.
Following the call for entries by Glo Foundation, Globacom’s corporate social responsibility arm, hundreds of girls from various secondary schools across the country applied to participate in the programme. The schools were from Plateau, Kano, Lagos, Rivers, Edo, Borno, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Ondo, Oyo, Anambra, FCT, Delta, Kaduna and Adamawa states.
The initiative, designed as a STEM-driven challenge, is awarding the winning school prizes worth N5 million. The competition was put in place by Glo Foundation as part of activities celebrating this year’s International Day of the Girl Child.
Glo Foundation explained that the competition “is geared at inspiring young girls to Compete, Innovate and Win, while also strengthening their confidence and expanding their knowledge in STEM subjects”.
While the overall winning school walks away with N2,000,000 prize, the 2 Students who will represent the school will each get a laptop, and the Teacher/Mentor/STEM Coordinator gets N200,000. The students of the schools that come 2nd and 3rd, as well as the Teachers/Mentors/STEM Coordinators will also go home with consolation prizes.
The three female judges of the virtual phase of the top 20 schools said they were excited by the quality of presentations by the competing schools. For Tosin Olabode: “I was particularly impressed by the prototype presentations from some schools. They demonstrated that they had done their homework”.
Amina Gabriel was thrilled by the variety of ideas that the schools came up with. “The schools presented innovative solutions tackling issues in agriculture, security, waste management, and firefighting. The top 10 schools showcased outstanding prototypes, from apps to robots, making the judging process truly competitive. I’m grateful to Glo Foundation for the opportunity to serve and support young girls in STEM”, she noted.
“This competition has showcased a highly competitive next generation of women leaders in STEM. This was an excellent exercise and a means to encourage more students in STEM to develop problem-solving and innovative thinking skills”, said the third judge, Sharon Ibejih.
