On Monday, 31st of March, Sigma Club UI, through the office of the Chairman of Publicity, Loyalist Sulaimom Oluwasegun Philipson, on Monday 31st of March held a press conference on the Google Meet virtual platform with regard to the coming Grand Finale of the Roseline Etuokwu Sigma National Secondary School Quiz Competition which has been scheduled for Saturday, 12th of April, 2025 at the Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan.
The event which started around 5pm, kicked off with Loyalist Philipson thanking pressmen from various LPOs for being present, after which he went on to invite the National Quiz Coordinator, Loyalist Olaoluwa Olagoke, for his briefing. Loyalist Olaoluwa began by giving a background on how the competition started, and how it has evolved from being an initiative covering only Ibadan North LGA for the first edition in 2021, to expanding into a largely anticipated national event since the last edition in 2024.
The National Quiz Coordinator also mentioned that this year’s edition started with the preliminary stage on January 18th and witnessed a substantial increase in the number of participating schools in comparison to the previous editions, with over 600 schools taking up forms of participation nationwide. “We particularly observed that more schools from the North-Eastern part of the country expressed their interest in participating compared with the previous editions, which is a positive, considering that it is a less educationally developed region,” He added. Winners for the preliminary category (state level), battled with their counterparts in the regional stage (the 6 geopolitical zones), with the winners from this stage qualifying for the national stage.
Notably, this edition will follow the modalities of the last, but for two major changes, which are increment in the prizes for the winners, and removal of the science category of the quiz, with the participants now only tested on Mathematics, English Language and General Knowledge. The prizes for this year are: 5 million Naira for the winner, 2 million Naira for the first runner-up, 1 million Naira for the second runner-up, with 500,000 Naira consolation prizes each for the 4th, 5th, and 6th places nationally. Additionally, each winner at the state level is guaranteed to receive a prize of 200,000 naira.
Speaking with the press, Loyalist Olaoluwa expressed his commendation for the program, “This event was ideated out of our quest for excellence. It is the dream of the club to make education as rewarding as other fields, such as entertainment and sports, which will be a key driver in the development of the nation. We hope this philanthropic tradition of our club continues to be preserved, and gets even bigger.”
Sidiq Moshood.
