Munachimso Onuoha has emerged the overall winner of the Best Minds Competition 2018 organised by Elsie Abimbola Fernandez Foundation with the finale held at Multi Plan Pathway College, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Mr. Munachimso Onuoha, a Senior Secondary student of Whitesands School received a ₦2 million cash prize donated by Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc. He also received a ₦100,000 gift voucher from Ebeano Stores to buy any item of his choice.
Ms. Sarah Inyang of Lagoon School came second and received a cash prize of ₦250,000 donated by Bridgehouse College, Lagos.
Ms. Precious Odediran of Woodland Hills High School came third and received a prize of ₦50,000 gift voucher donated by Ebano Supermarket, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Everyone in the Top Ten received gift vouchers of ₦10,000 each donated by Ebano Supermarket, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Best Minds University Endowment Award is a competition amongst SS2 students from the top 200 Secondary Schools in Lagos State. The aim is to help them get set for the tough year ahead in SS3 and also reward them with a prize that will take care of a substantial part of their university education.
The Best Minds Competition was held between July 2018 and October 2018 in Lagos State. At the beginning of the Competition, there were 60 Candidates from the Public Schools and 40 from Private. Only one candidate from the Public Schools made it to the Top Ten. His name is Mr. Hassan Akpemi Ikhaghu of Ijeshatedo Senior Secondary School, Lagos.
According to Elsie Abimbola Fernandez Foundation:
“He [Mr. Hassan Akpemi Ikhaghu] deserves special recognition because through this Competition we were able to see clearly that the gap between the Public Schools and Private Schools have widened to an unacceptable degree.
The public school system is indeed crying out for help and something needs to be done about it and soon. We will continue to do our best to introduce support the education system by introducing initiatives that will be beneficial to public schools in particular and all students in general.”
The Format for the Competition:
Phase 1 – The eligible students underwent Written Examinations of the Competition in order to reduce the number of students that moved to the next phase of the Competition, the Quiz format. The subjects for the written Exams were: English, Mathematics and General Knowledge and Memory Test.
Phase 2 – The Competition subjects were English Language, Mathematics, General Knowledge, Information Technology (IT) and Memory Test.
Munachimso Onuoha donated ₦500,000 to the Ikota Educational Foundation (IEF) Schools Scholarship Fund out of the ₦2 million cash prize he got as the winner of the Best Minds Competition.
The Ikota Educational Foundation is a not-for profit NGO that promotes educational institutions with Whitesands School as the maiden project. IEF has recently established two in Enugu; the Hillrange Secondary School (for boys) and Roseville Secondary School (for girls).
Munachimso Onuoha has featured in the finals of several prestigious academic competitions. He was at the finals for Lagos state at the Cowbellpedia Mathematics Competition senior category.
Munachimso came second in the Mathematics Olympiad organised by the Mathematics Association of Nigeria (MAN). He was also at the finals of the PZ-Cussons Chemistry competition. He is also in the national finals of the Interswitch-SPAK science competition coming up this January 2019.
