•Groups organise competition in Ebonyi, splash prizes on winners
From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
The second edition of reading competition for junior students in Okposi, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, ended on Saturday, November 4, 2023, with smiles on the faces of the participants, especially the winners.
A Non-Governmental Organisation, FANEV Readers Club, staged the five-day event in collaboration with Anayo and Mercy Foundation (AMF). The programme also featured spell quest[M1] [M2] s, quiz, road show and other activities.
Daily Sun learnt that the reading club was established principally to raise a generation of well-informed leaders who will disrupt the status quo and become wealth creators through exposure to relevant books and resource materials.
Founder of the club and Secretary of AMF, Elder Nwachukwu Eze Aja, said that the programme sponsored by the Anayo and Mercy Foundation, was impactful in the sense that it has positively changed the reading attitude of many students.
“The students’ testimonies about the programme were enormous as they had confessed that the competition has motivated them into constant reading,” he said.
Eze Aja further disclosed that the 12 different secondary schools that participated in the grand finale were selected across the three autonomous communities of Okposi.
He advised parents to always provide their children with the opportunities to read in order to join in the subsequent editions.
A renowned educationist and traditional ruler of Okposi Okwu Autonomous Community, Onyibe Chuku Agwu (Odenigbo 1 of Okposi Okwu), urged the children to be studious, saying that hard work in pursuing knowledge was the only secret of success.
A parent whose son in Excellence High School, Okposi, partook in the competition, Dr Mentor Owuru, said the programme had social impact on the upcoming ones.
He said: “It is all about stimulating them in the right direction which would also make them to be independent during examinations and other competitive activities either within their schools or outside.
“It is a way of awakening the giant that is silently lying in them because if they are not stretched, they would not know that they have such capability.”
Okereke Okorie, one of the coaches of the event and English Teacher in Federal Government College, Okposi, said that his students were drilled for long in preparation for the competition to enable them retain the overall first position which they took last year.
“Though it is meant only for JSS2 students but the book written by Ben Carlson with the title, “I have a brain,” which they read for the programme last year, really impacted their lives positively,” he said.
Principal of the junior section of Government Secondary School, Okposi, Mrs Sarah Okike said that the event would be a milestone in the education sector by restoring the already collapsed reading culture.
Okike said: “The advance in technology has affected the reading culture because the smart phones cannot allow the children to read or write since they are often busy with their phones watching movies and other things.
“But this event is gradually reviving the abandoned habit. When it comes to writing of English Language, the children are no longer doing well as a result of abbreviations and voice notes, even as an adult, the programme is motivating me.”
She disclosed that reading at the library on daily basis would be incorporated in her school timetable where one class would be going to library in order to revive the culture.
One of the participants, a JSS 2 student of Government Secondary School, Okposi, Miss Chimere Ituma said that she would make daily reading a habit and advised the schools that did not win any prize to take it in good fate and prepare towards subsequent editions.
Another participant from Holy Rosary College, Okposi, Miss Gift Aja said that both the reading and writing competitions which she partook had reshaped her reading culture for good.
An SSS3 student of Destiny International Academy, Okposi, Miss Precious Eze said though the competition was not meant for her mates but she joined the targeted persons in reading the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. She thanked FANEV and AMF for exposing her to how to overcome such obstacles as fear, arrogance, bad habit and other related acts.
The Senior Principal of Government Secondary School, Okposi, Mr. Titus Ogbu told us that his school took the overall second position last year, noting that the competition had boosted the reading habit of his students and even the population of the school.
At close of the competition, winners went home with cash prizes totalling about N1million. Federal Government College, Okposi was the overall winner, followed by Government Secondary School (GSSO), 2nd position and Excellence High School as the 3rd best winner.
In the category of the best individuals; Miss Daberechi John from GSSO, won the first prize, Miss Eucharia Chibuike from Prime College, came second and Miss Alice Kenechukwu of FGC, Okposi, got the third position, while the best three coaches were bestowed with various prizes.