Ex Childville School Student Wins Microsoft Office Contest

Funmi Ogundare

A former student of the Childville School, Ogudu, Lagos, Miss Katherine Eta, 16, has emerged second runner-up in the 2016 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) world championship, a global competition designed to challenge students to demonstrate their proficiency in the use of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Eta was one of the participants in the rigorous competition held at the United States that attracted more than 560,000 candidates from 122 countries.

For her efforts, she got a cheque of N750,000 from Readmanna Empowerment Initiative, an organisation that promotes proficiency in basic computer literacy aligned to global standards among students through such competitions, and another from Zenith Bank, while her ICT teacher, Mrs. Rukayat Adebayo got N250,000.

Speaking at the 2017 ReadManna awards in Lagos recently, the Group Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Peter Amangbo pledged the bank’s continued support for the competition.

Amangbo, who was represented by the General Manager, Mrs. Wunmi Ogunbiyi, commended ReadManna for successfully organising the annual event for 16 years with the objective of encouraging the use of Microsoft Office tools in Nigerian schools.

He described the award as a celebration of excellence, while acknowledging the efforts of the Director, Mrs. Edna Agusto.

“I am confident of the achievements of the participating students which will further encourage her to break more records and establish more frontiers. Zenith Bank is committed to sponsoring an expanded Nigerian competition involving more schools, as well as supporting the Nigerian contingent to the 2018 Microsoft World championship.”

He lauded Eta’s feat in the 2017 MOS World Championship, saying, When Katherine Eta emerged the third place winner in the keenly contested 2017 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship, held in the USA, from a rigorous competition that attracted more than 560,000 candidates from 122 countries, it elicited hope and confidence for the future of our children and country.”

He said the bank would continue to engage in partnerships that would also positively impact on Nigerians in the short, medium and long-terms.

“Let me congratulate the children that have won various awards and also encourage the potential winners in the hope that it will soon be their turn on the stage.”

Reading the report of the 2017 MOS championship in Nigeria, Agusto thanked the bank for its decision to grow the competition.

She said the 2017 edition, which was open to students between the ages of 13 and 22 enrolled in any academic institution, took place over a period of seven months, from August 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017 with about 882 entries from 20 secondary schools across four states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

On her plans for the money, Eta who expressed delight about her success, said she is currently learning new skills and plans to study computer engineering.

“I feel great and privileged to represent Nigeria and make the country, myself, parents and school proud. I am happy that I was able to come third in the world. I got a lot of self-motivation seeing other people from other countries becoming world champions; it moved me to want to be like them. I plan to save up the money to add to my college fund and invest in things that will influence my future.”