…as Lagos schools win 2018 Mike Okonkwo National Essay competition
A Professor of English Language at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo, has said it is necessary to educate Nigerian students, especially at the secondary school level, on the regulations regarding the extent to which they can claim materials sourced from the internet.
According to Ezeigbo, they need to be taught early enough how much they can extract from existing materials without infringing on copyright rules.
“As the Internet and android phones have become basic infrastructures of knowledge production and transmission, our children must now be made to understand that there are regulations concerning the extent to which they can claim materials domiciled in those spaces of learning,” she said.
The university don said this in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos during the presentation of the winners of the 2018 Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition for Secondary School students in Nigeria.
Ezeigbo, who was also the chief examiner for the competition, said the entries for 2018 were characterised by the usual infractions such as confirmed incidence of plagiarism or direct lifting of materials from Internet repositories, copying from textbooks and other printed sources and proven cases of collaboration among candidates and evidence that candidates might have received help from either of their teachers or parents.
“The infractions are easily detected because the candidates use language above their educational stations. In many cases, we verified originality of entries by conducting a simple Internet check and found many containing significant portions of existing works.”
She, therefore, recommended that rudimentary lessons on the rules of proper writing, how to acknowledge the materials consulted and the consequences of plagiarism should form part of the curriculum of the Senior Secondary School classes.
“Learning these rules early enough will ensure they do not develop and carry with them the habit of lifting materials from the Internet to higher institutions,” she explained.
On how the winners were selected, the don said after a painstaking scrutiny, only four out of all the entries were suitable for invitation to the second stage of the competition, which is basically a confirmatory procedure to verify the integrity of the original submission.
“The content and structure of the four entries, we must say, are just sufficient to enable the candidates to score grades within the ‘B’ range. The implication of this is that the verve, creativity and imagination that we have seen in past performances are beginning to whittle down, even though enthusiasm to take part continues to rise,” she explained.
Miss Onitilo Deborah of New Chrisfield College, Ikorodu, Lagos was adjudged the overall winner of the competition, having scored 63 per cent in the first round of the competition and 52 per cent in the second round of the competition to come first.
The second position goes to Miss Ashley Davidson of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Ikeja. She scored 62 per cent in the first round and 49 per cent in the second round to come second. While, Master Esigbone Omagbemi Ferdinand of Roshallom International Secondary School, Lagos, came third. He scored 60 per cent in the first round and 47 per cent in the second round. The other winner is Miss Fagbemi Semilore Ireoluwa also of Roshallom International School, Lagos.
For coming top in this year’s competition, Miss Onitilo Deborah of New Chrisfield College, Ikorodyu Lagos will get a cheque of N100,000, a personal laptop, a trophy, a plaque, while her school gets three sets of computer and a printer.
Miss Ashley Davidson of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Ikeja, Lagos, who came second will go home with a cheque of N75,000, a plaque and her school will get two sets of computer and a printer. For emerging the third position in this year’s competition, Master Esigbone Omagbemi Ferdinand of Roshallom International Secondary School, Lagos, will go home with a cheque of N50,000, a plaque and his school gets a computer set. The other winner will get a consolation price of N20,000.
The prices for the winners of the competition will be presented at this year’s Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture, at the Shell Hall Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos, in September 2018. The theme for this year’s lecture is “Nigeria’s Unity: Matters Arising.”
Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition was initiated in the year 2004, as part of the activities to celebrate the birthday of the Presiding Bishop of TREM, Dr. Mike Okonkwo (MFR), and more importantly, to contribute to the development of the educational
sector.
