“Discourage your children from patronising ‘Magic Centres”

PARENTS and guardians have been advised to discourage their children and wards from writing their examinations at places referred to as ‘Magic Centres’ and to teach them the value of honesty in all they do.

The advice was given on Tuesday at the Shell Hall of MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, by Professor Hope Eghagha of the University of Lagos, before announcing the winners for the 14th edition of the Mike Okonkwo Essay Competition and the 18th edition of Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture.

This year’s edition of the competition was entitled ‘Made in Nigeria Goods: Vehicle for National Development’.

Professor Eghagha said such centres had in no small way contributed to the decline in education standard and encouraged students not to study for their examinations, as such centres would have been compromised even by their parents.

According to him, 796 entries were received for the 14th edition of the competition.

“Twenty seven entries were not original. In other words, they were plagiarised. This was (discovered) after cross-checking each entry carefully with internet sources to determine their originality. This is one of the problems confronting us in the education sector currently,” he said.

Eghagha noted that plagiarism cuts across all levels of education, and advised parents to stop writing their children’s homework for them but rather teach them what to do.

He also admonished teachers at all levels to always teach their pupils/students in relation to their environment, noting that from the entries, students quoted and referred to foreign countries as their references.

Alexandra Nwigwe from the Vivian Fowler Memorial College, Lagos, emerged the overall winner of the competition and went home with a cash gift of N100,000, a trophy, plaque, laptop; and three desktop computers with a printer for her school.

The first runner-up, Jesuduntan Ipinmoye of the Corona Secondary School, Lagos, got a cash gift of N75,000, a plaque, a laptop; and two desktop computer sets for her school; while the second runner-up, Akingbade Gbenga, was given N50,000, and a desktop computer for his school.

For the first time in the history of the annual competition, consolation prizes were given to six other students for participating in the competition, as each of them was given N20,000 and certificate of participation.