by Rachel Ogbu

 Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited, an independent oil and gas company has launched social programme, Seplat Pearls Quiz which is aimed at promoting academic excellence in secondary schools located in Edo and Delta States.

The first prize for the quiz programme is a brand new Toyota bus for the school; various categories of scholarship and school accessories for winning students. Other prizes include school accessories, computer systems and cash reward for schools that make the final round and capacity building workshop for the teachers.

The Pearls Quiz programme kicks off with qualifying tests in October, 2012 and the competition runs for next two months.

The company which operates the NPDC/SEPLAT JV assets, OML 4, 38 &41 announced that education initiative comes barely five months after the implementation of the JV highly successful, sight restoration project, “Eye Can See” programme targeted at students in public and private secondary schools in the company’s states of operation.

 In collaboration with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Seplat PEARLs Quiz competition is expected to stimulate healthy competition among schools in the designated area, encourage learning and reward outstanding academic performance.

Austin Avuru, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Petroleum Development Company said as a socially conscious corporate citizen, NPDC/SEPLAT JV has continually demonstrated firm commitment to a long term infrastructural development of her host communities, as well as, to growing the human capital and intellectual aptitude of the people in these areas.

He explained that SEPLAT PEARLs QUIZ, stands for Promoting Exceptional and Respectable Leaders, and that the company has committed significant resources to meticulously craft this programme to rekindle the spirit of academic excellence and healthy competition in private and public schools in these states.

Avuru said:

“We have taken a very deliberate decision to target the youth with this programme because young people represent the future of any community, and indeed the nation; youth are very active and need to be assisted to channel their energies on the right course. They also need to be encouraged to embrace the spirit of scholarship and supported to understand and appreciate the fact that there is good reward for scholastic excellence.”

“We are therefore, explicitly committed to facilitating the students and, by extension their teachers, to realize their full potentials, making them more competitive in an increasingly sophisticated global job marketplace while also inspiring them to develop into well informed future leaders.

Participation for the programme has been made accessible to  all secondary schools in Edo and Delta states and the competition holds  at the school level along the line of the senatorial zones and ends at the states level to determine the winners. The quiz contest comprises selected questions in various subjects following approved school curricula.   At the end of the final stage, the first three top performing schools and the winning students will be rewarded with various prizes.

The PEARLs Quiz programme will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in the respective states.