TheCable

Total Education Development Academy (TEDA), a private secondary school in Eke-Owerri, Obingwa local government area of Abia state, has won two awards at the 2019/2020 National Olympiad Awards.

Emefiena Lifted Udoka and Ikechi Favour Chinaza, students from the school, won the first and third prize in the Junior Science category respectively at the 2019/2020 Nigerian Mathematics and Sciences Olympiads competition organised by the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) in Abuja.

Ikechi Favour Chinaza also won the award of Best Girl in Junior Science.

The awards ceremony held on Thursday to honour students.

NMC was established by the federal government on January 1, 1988, to sustain interest in the mathematical sciences at all levels in Nigeria.

Lawrence Ogbonnaya, TEDA’s vice principal who accompanied the students to the event, said: “The awards mean a lot for TEDA. They are rewards of the efforts of the students, teachers, and management of the school”.

“The National Mathematical Centre invited us to the competition in 2018.  We knew we were not ready but one year of assiduous preparations have placed us on the global map.”

Wisdom Omogbade of Ambassador’s College in Ogun state was the Mathematics Queen, in addition to her school winning the Mathematics award. NITC, Yobe swept nine of the top 10 places in Junior Informatics. Other schools from Kogi, Rivers, Enugu, Ondo, and Ogun States were in the final.

Ogbonnaya explained that the school has put measures in place to cater to students.

“We have Olympiad classes for exceptional students who average 90 per cent or above. All students are part of normal classes where quality teaching and learning are the norm. Our special classes are for later bloomers. Students in these classes get extra attention and time. We manage their challenges and lift them to above 60 percent,” he said.

“Ultra-modern science laboratories, workshops for auto-mechanics, metalwork, woodwork, electrical installation and maintenance are accessible to our students from their first year, ” he said.

“The students study basic Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, and Further Mathematics from their junior secondary school. By the senior school, they are used to scientific concepts and to an extent, their applications.”

He also said the teacher-student ratio of the school was 1:25, adding that the school enables students to learn at their pace.