STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM education helps bridge gaps in learning and helps prepare students for success. The importance of STEM education can be seen in what it does to students. A STEM curriculum helps students develop project management skills. STEM courses, especially technology and engineering courses, often involve hands-on projects.
Creativity is another important component of STEM education. Just as how our world has finite resources and infinite problems, STEM education helps to proffer solutions to those challenges. It encourages spatial reasoning, thinking, problem solving, and creativity. This helps students to look at problems from different angles and come up with solutions.
Teamwork is one of the most underrated and important drivers of success. Living and working in the modern world usually requires some degree of collaboration. When students develop soft skills like critical thinking through STEM activities and lessons where it comes naturally, they can help gain the skills they need and it is the first step toward promising jobs of the future, new knowledge, and innovation.
Therefore, for a company, as part of its social responsibility, to take it upon itself to start promoting STEM education and has done that for five consecutive years, is a welcome development. The decision of Interswitch, leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, to roll out a competition called InterswitchSPAK, to identify and catch young and talented Africans in STEM education, is a step in the right direction.
The annual competition, open to all senior secondary school students between the ages of 14 and 17 in public and private schools, aims to discover and nurture young students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, with the goal of building a knowledge-based society and promoting sustainable development in Africa. It is a platform for students to showcase their academic prowess in STEM subjects and compete for various exciting prizes, including university scholarships. Contestants are taken through various qualifying rounds, including online assessments and a national qualifying examination leading to the semi-finals stage. This is followed by a grand finale where the finalists compete for the ultimate prize of N7.5 million in scholarships for a five-year period, a laptop, and monthly stipends.
The second-place winner receives N4 million in scholarships for three years, a laptop, and monthly stipends. The third-place winner in turn gets N1 million in scholarships for one year, monthly stipends, and a laptop. There are also mentoring opportunities with senior Interswitch employees, as well as other exciting prizes.
To mark the fifth anniversary of the competition, which was seen as a special edition, the prize pool was increased to over N14 million from the usual N12.5 million, so as to reward more winners than ever before. The increase in prize money saw over 100 students and teachers being rewarded instead of just the top three winners. Also, the company bought JAMB e-PINS for 54 contestants to enable them register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME.
Speaking on why Interswitch decided to toe the line of promoting STEM education, the Founder and Group Managing Director of Interswitch, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, said, “InterswitchSPAK is a celebration of our commitment to promoting STEM education in Africa and empowering the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. As we commence the fifth edition, we are delighted to have reached this milestone in the competition and assure Africans that more students across the continent will have access to quality STEM education through InterswitchSPAK.
“This year’s competition, being a commemorative edition, promises to be more exciting as well as educative. Over the past four editions, the competition has seen remarkable success stories of students who have emerged as winners and have gone on to make significant contributions in various STEM fields.”
Credit: Vangurad
