By John Sheka Tarawalie
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) on Monday 11th October, 2021 launched the 2nd Edition of the National Essay Competition.
The National Essay Competition is an initiative of the UBA foundation organized every year in countries where UBA has presence. The competition is for Senior Secondary School as part of UBA Foundation’s CSR pillar focusing on education just like its Read Initiative which is aimed at promoting the reading culture and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst Secondary School Students in Africa.
The topic for this year’s National Essay Competition is “Environment Resilience in Sierra Leone; identify a critical stakeholder and present their interventions for climate change”. The Essay Competition is for students in SSS1, SSS2 and SSS3 and they are required to submit a hand-written essay of not less than 500 words and must submit a copy of passport picture at the UBA offices across the country or at the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education head office or at the district offices across the country.
Applicants are required to submit their complete contract information like name, age, school, district/town, address of school, telephone number of parents/guardian and residential address or contact number. Also, applicants must attach photocopies of their original birth certificates and passport size photos.
Giving his statement, the MD and CEO of UBA Sierra Leone Mr Usman Isiaka said the essay competition offers an opportunity for pupils in examination classes to strengthen their critical thinking, civics and other skillsets relevant for their growth, noting that the winners will be given an opportunity to win a scholarship grant for their university education up to the limits of Le 50 million, Le 30 million and Le 20 million for the first, second and third positions respectively. He said the NEC is a UBA Foundation initiative that was started in 2011 as part of UBA Group’s drive to improve the access to education for the under-privileged across Africa. He notes that last year they received 289 essays from 43 schools across 7 provinces , noting that their objective this year is to ensure that they receive participants from all secondary schools across all the 12 provinces in the country. He noted that as a bank they are committed to organizing the competition every year to compliment the Sierra Leone government’s efforts in promoting quality education in the country.
MD Isiaka revealed that essays submitted by participants at the 16 district levels will be marked by a panel of academic judges who will be selected by the MBSSE and UBA, noting that the announcement of the 12 finalists of the competition will be made over TV broadcast, radio and newspapers. And that the 12 finalists will be contacted using the information provided in the application. Adding that a second essay that will evaluate for selecting the first, second and third place national winner will be conducted to get the scholarship grant while all 12 finalists who will sufficiently defend their essays in a 5 minutes interview with the judges and meet a cut off mark of 40% and above in the second rounds of essay will each receive a laptop and the final round will be broadcast live on a TV show.
The Minister for Basic and Senior Secondary School Education, David Monia Sengeh launched the 2nd edition of the National Essay Competition 2021.
