The Abia Government has launched a Science Teachers’ Championship (STC) competition as part of its efforts to enhance Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the state.
Speaking at the ceremony on Thursday in Umuahia, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Goodluck Ubochi, emphasised the relevant role STEM plays in the education sector.
Ubochi, represented by the Director, Science Technology and Vocational Education, Mrs Hope Nwosu, expressed the government’s resolve to equip and motivate science teachers to be active participants in driving STEM education in schools.
“This is a statewide competition and schools should cue-in; public schools, private schools, everyone should be involved.
“The present administration is giving serious attention to science subjects.
“We have taken time to compile the list of the needed teachers in all the subjects in sciences and very soon our public schools will be filled with science teachers,” Ubochi said.
He urged teachers to be committed to their duties, saying that the present administration rewards hardwork and dedication to duty.
In a speech, the Chief Executive Officer of ASSPPAA-ISBORS Platforms Limited, Mr Patrick Ochuba, said the competition was designed to create a reward system for science teachers and students.
Ochuba said that the STC platform would be used to digitally connect all the science teachers and students in public and private secondary schools in the state.
He said: “The aim is to reinvigorate the teaching profession, to make the profession very lucrative, very interesting, very attractive and very entertaining.
“The platform has been structured around the WAEC, NECO and JAMB Syllabus, so we are not going outside the curriculum to perform the practicals.
“The difference is that we are moving them away from theories to practicals, so, emphasis is on experience in practicals”.
Ochuba urged secondary school principals, headteachers, science teachers and students to register for the competition on www.scienceteacherschampionship.com.
He said that registration and participation in the competition were completely free of charge.
According to him, on a monthly basis, there would be a cash reward of N50,000 for each teacher that emerges the best in either Biology or Chemistry or Physics and the best science students would receive N20,000, each.
Ochuba further said that every science experiment conducted by a teacher and uploaded on the STC website would be rewarded with N1,000 and the money would be credited to the teacher’s E-wallet or bank account.
“The relevance, social impact and effectiveness of the competition will be better appreciated by everyone at the end of February, when the first set of winners across the state would emerge.
“At the comfort of your homes and offices through your mobile phones and laptops, everyone is seamlessly connected to the classroom activities and engagements of science teachers and students in Abia,” Ochuba said.
The State Government is conducting the competition in partnership with ASSPPAA-ISBORS Platforms Limited.