SHORT BRIEF ON UGONMUTA FOUNDATION ANNUAL UNDERGRADUATE ESSAY COMPETITION

INTRODUCTION

The Annual undergraduate Essay Competition is a major initiative under the Foundation’s Education Support Programme (ESP).

The Competition is open to all undergraduate students of Ekwulobia Community, at home and abroad, in Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Education and similar tertiary institutions. The first Edition of the competition was held in 2006. Since then, the competition has been held, every year on the first Saturday of November.

Fifteenth Edition

The 15th (2021) edition of the competition will be held on the second Saturday of November (Nov 13), 2021. The date has been shifted to second Saturday of November because the first Saturday (Nov. 06) is election day in Anambra State.

Venue and Time

The venue is Monsignor Maduka Memorial Secondary School, Ula-Ekwulobia in Aguata LGA of Anambra State. The competition starts by 11am prompt.

Method of Registration

All candidates must register through Ugonmuta Foundation online portal using the following link:

www.ugonmutafoundation.org/register.

Registration start on October 15, 2021 and ends on November 11, 2021. All candidates are advised to comply with this directive.

Modalities for the Competition

Upon registration, a candidate is assigned a code number which he/she indicates on every page of the ruled pages of his/her essay. An essay is discarded if the candidates name appears anyhow on the essay ruled booklet. The ruled essay booklet is supplied and distributed to candidates, by the Foundation, before the commencement of each competition.

A detachable form is attached to each essay booklet. The form explores the personal details of each candidate, his/her full names, identification code, his/her village in Ekwulobia, his/her discipline, institution and year of study.

Essay Topic

The essay topic, for the year, is printed and distributed to the candidates before the commencement of the competition. The topic is so selected that it would be discipline neutral (i.e., candidates, in any discipline, do not have any obvious advantage than others).

The topic is selected, in a way that it reflects an issue of current national concern. The topic for the 2020 (14th) edition of the competition was.

The coronavirus (COVID – 19) Pandemic has increased the use of online method of teaching and learning in institutions of higher education in Nigeria.

Explain in details, what you understand by online method of teaching and learning

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the method and suggest necessary steps to be taken to make online teaching and learning an acceptable and viable method of education.

Grading and Scoring of Essays

At the end of the competition, the forms containing the personal details of candidates are detached and deposited in a sealed large envelope which is kept as a sensitive document in our office. Similarly, the essays submitted by candidates, are deposited in a sealed envelope(s) for assessment grading and scoring.

The essays are forwarded, sequentially, to three independent assessors, selected for the year for grading and scoring. The three independent assessors are selected from among lecturers of the rank of senior lecturer and above, in a mix of three institutions of higher learning in Nigeria, namely universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education. Assessors are changed from time to time to ensure that confidentiality prevails in the assessment process.

A template is provided to guide the assessors and thereby enhance transparency and uniform approach to the scoring. The acceptance to participate is secured from each assessor before the date of competition each year. However, the topic, for the essay is not discussed ahead of time.

The assessors are warned not to make comments or markings on any essay. Each assessor is simply required to read, evaluate and score each essay on a separate assessor’s sheet and return an overall percentage score for the essay. Upon completion, each assessor returns the package of essays accompanied by his/her score sheet. The package of essays are forwarded for grading, sequently to all three assessors for the year.

At the end of the grading exercise, the Ugonmuta Foundation finds the average score of the three independent assessors which constitutes each candidates score. Such average assessors score constitutes the basis for selecting the prize winners for each competition.

The Foundation has always redeemed its pledge to pay each assessor a reasonable stipend tor the exercise. Some of the assessors have voluntarily decided to forfeit their earned stipend as a gesture of assistance to help Ugonmuta Foundation to sustain the initiate. The Foundation keeps looking forward to a time when philanthropic individuals or organizations would decide to help in funding the annual event, now in the 15th year of its annual operation.

Prize Awarded

At the inception of the award, in 2006, only three prizes, namely first, second and third place prizes were awarded. From the 5th (2010) edition, three consolation prizes were added to have three main prizes and three consolation prizes each year. From that year (2010) the main prizes were increased to N50,000 for first prize, N30,000 for second prize and N20,000 for third prize. The three consolation prizes were fixed at N10,000, each