And the sparks continues to ignite

The Interswitch’s SPAK National Science Competition continues to ignite passion of secondary school students in Sciences

Charles Ogwo

Since 2017, the organisers of the Interswitch SPAK National Science Competition, a secondary school science television contest, have steadily aimed at achieving its noble objectives.

These objectives include arousing and sustaining keen interest in the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in secondary schools across Africa; raising the standard of STEM education and rewarding excellence with educational grants through an unbiased competition that would promote sound education in Africa.

Hence, the competition was designed to test the ability of each student in the sciences, with the sole objective of promoting the study of STEM subjects.

Besides, it is meant to create a vehicle that is genuinely interested in the growth, development and well-being of African students through various interventions including scholarship schemes for outstanding STEM students.

SPAK, which stands for Speed, Perseverance, Accuracy and Knowledge; was created by Oladapo Ojo and developed by JustMedia Productions with the exclusive target of the Senior Secondary School (SSS) 2 students aged between 14 and 17 years.

It is introduced to chart the ideal career path and drive the Nigerian student towards full maximization of his/her potentials and fulfillment of his/her dreams whether as an inventor or an entrepreneur with a key message of reviving up the interest of students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders towards STEM education and its application, especially in Africa.

From its modest beginning with its development by JustMedia as a Social Corporate responsibility initiative, the competition achieved a total turn-around in 2018 when the Interswitch Group became the exclusive headline sponsor of the project. This expanded the duration/timing of the competition and bigger prizes were introduced. And a year later in 2019 it was expanded to East Africa starting with Kenya.

For a student to be eligible for the competition, he/she must be an SSS2 student between the ages of 14-17, attending full time secondary education either in a public school or a private school. Each school is required to present its best six SSS2 students in science, irrespective of religion, tribe or state of origin; to enhance their chances of qualifying for the second round of the competition. In a mixed-school, however, schools are required to have at least two female students amongst the six students that would represent them. Participation in this competition is free with registration strictly done online via www.interswitchspak.com. 

There are two main levels of the competition available to participants. The first round is a written National qualifying examination, which is conducted by National Examination Council (NECO) at the designated centres across Nigeria. The organisers strongly recommend that students take the examination in the nearest centers.

Each school is expected to prepare their candidates for the qualifying examination in four subjects (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology) based on the current year 2 WAEC/NECO syllabuses. However, a good understanding of Geography, ICT and General knowledge is an added advantage.

100 objective questions are to be answered in 75minutes by the students; that is 25 questions from each of the four subjects.

For the examination, students are to arrive at their designated examination center before 10:00am on the examination day to start their accreditation, with their registration form duly signed and signed by the Principal of their schools. Latecomers will not be allowed to take the examination. Students are expected to along with only a pencil, eraser, ruler and HB chart. No calculator is allowed.

All students must appear at the examination site in school uniform. The competition is however, only open for SS2 students.

For the second phase of the competition, which is a television quiz competition, only qualified students will be contacted.  The best 81 students (with the highest scores) out of those who wrote the qualifying examination will be drawn up into nine (9) groups based on their scores from the National Qualifying Exam. Each of the 9 groups will have students battle amongst themselves to determine the three (3) qualifiers from each group that would move into the semis. At the semifinals, the best three (3) from each of the three (3) groups would qualify for the final, and at the final (i.e. the end), the overall Best STEMstudent would emerge.  

The competition is recorded and transmitted on television across Nigeria and Africa.

Past winners of the competition include Ayobami Ahmed from Scholars Universal Secondary School, Ota who emerged 1^st prize winner in the 2017/18 competition; Aminu Abdusalam from The Ambassadors College, Ota, who came 2^nd, and Samuel Amoko from Hallmark Secondary School, Ondo who won the 3^rd prize award same year.

Akachukwu Anumudu from Apostolic Faith Secondary School, Lagos won 1^st Prize) in 2018/19 competition with  Henry Umunna from Loyola College, Abuja winning 2^nd Prize) and Onyedikachi Kanu from Dority International Secondary School, Aba winning 3rd Prize.

The first prize winner get a five-year university scholarship with annual stipend, all worth of ₦7,500,000 and a laptop, while the 2nd Prize is a three- year university scholarship worth of ₦4,000,000 and a laptop and the 3^rd place prize is one-year university scholarship worth of ₦1,000,000.

The 2019/2020 competition, the national examination of InterswitchSPAK will take place in April, 2020, in Nigeria. The list of centers approve for the competition can be accessed on www.interswitchspak.com.

Interswitch SPAK 2020 Examination Centers