Public secondary schools have emerged winners of the ground breaking edition of Akinrin Educational Foundation Inter-School Debate Competition.
The competition which was held at the GYB Model Science Secondary School, Lokoja on Wednesday had students drawn from selected public and private schools in Lokoja.
The competition, with the topic “Nigeria Should Prioritize Agriculture Over the Oil Sector”, had public schools opposing and the private schools proposing the motion.
At the end of the debate, the public schools emerged winners with 60.58% and the private schools scored an average of 48.8%.
Announcing the winners of the debate, the Coordinating Judge, Prof. Gabriel Ottah Alhassan of the Department of Mass Communication at Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, congratulated the debaters for putting up excellent performance.
Declaring the debate opened, the State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, commended the organisers for coming up with a programme that would add succour to the educational development of the state.
He stated that the debate would go a long way in increasing the students level of research, public confidence and engaging their creative minds.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Alabi Albert Bamigbade, congratulated the debaters for being selected from their schools and urged them to focus on the goals ahead, to win the grand finale.
He called on the students and their handlers to come together and work as a team in order to win the grand finale which would be between Kogi and Ekiti State.
Schools that participated are; GYB Model Science Secondary School, Army Day Secondary School, Bishop Delisle Secondary School, Crowther Memorial College, GSSS Lokoja, GGSS Sarkin-Noma, Julitola International School, Scintillate International Model School, Muna International Comprehensive Academy and Abu Haneefah Islamic Academy.
