Lagos Lottery Board Announces STEM Quiz for Secondary School Students

By Segun James

The Lagos State Lottery Board (LSLB) has announced the Eko Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (EKO STEM) quiz for public and private secondary schools in the state.

The General Manager, Mr. Bashir Are said the competition is to promote education by complementing the shortfall in the sector, especially as a fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Revenue generated by the Lagos State Lotteries Board are paid into a distribution trust fund. The fund, by virtue of Section 33 of the Lagos State Lotteries (Amendment) Law 2008, is applied towards executing good cause projects in infrastructure, eduction, environment, social, health and sports development,” he noted.

According to him, the law establishing the LSLB empowers it to intervene, financially in education, infrastructure, environment, health and social sectors of the state.
The Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on State Lotteries, Ms. Funmi Olotu, who gave an overview of the quiz, said the show will be pre-recorded and aired monthly on selected television stations and social media.

She said the goal is to positively impact the pupils and viewers with rewarding insights and exciting discoveries about STEM.

Over 1,500 pupils are expected to register through their schools. Registration started at the beginning of the month and about 500 pupils have registered already. Each school is to present two candidates.

The preliminary examination held last week at 20 centres across the state and successful candidates/schools will move to the next stage of writing the computer based test (CBT) on May 29. Twelve successful candidates will then slug it out at the studio finals where two schools will feature monthly for six months.

After this, six successful candidates from the 12 will compete against each other and the final three winners will be selected.

The ultimate prize will be a full higher institution scholarship.

The competition, which will start in June, is for students in senior secondary one and two. They will be tested in Agricultural Science, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science and Technology.