It was a festive showcasing of talents and display of creativities at its best by the finalists representing some of the secondary schools from Owo local Government during the Doctor Abiola Oshodi foundation inaugural creative art competition held at the Imade College Owo, Ondo State.
The competition which was organized and sponsored by the Dr. Abiola Oshodi foundation recorded commendations and encomium from well meaning Nigerians both at home and abroad because of it’s uniqueness and motivational spirits amongst our young ones moreso at this very difficult time in our nation’s history .
Creative art is an uncommon profession which receives little or no importance or no priorities in the national syllabus by the education ministry and thus has been neglected and abandoned in our primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, the Dr Abiola Oshodi foundation realized it’s importance and the need to discover talents by catching them young for bigger opportunities, hence the reason for conceptualizing and initiating the contest as approved and sponsored by the founder of the foundation who is very passionate in comprehensive education .
The Dr Abiola Oshodi creative arts competition aims at identifying and promoting students skilled in creative drawing and painting with intention of making self discover their talents and passion for creative arts and potentially pursue same as profession in the future .
The foundation partners with all the secondary schools within the Owo local government area and also incorporated art teachers in the program to ensure inclusiveness and ease of communication and proper sense of direction between the foundation and the competing students.
The competition was executed in three phases to give room for equal opportunity amongst the schools and to make sure all schools with talented students in creative arts participate equitably in the competition .
The first phase was the preliminary stage and witnessed a large number of secondary school that registered and participated in the contest.
The best six schools were selected by the judges who are all creative arts professionals and used a standardized method to grade the drawing of the participating students based on structure, shading, painting and perfection of the sketch were considered as the yardstick for awarding marks.
The grand finale amongst six participating schools eventually produced the first, second and third positions from the contestants was a glamorous and emotionally provoking event which had in attendance teachers, principals, students, judges and other great personalities within the community .
The final which took 5hours was an interesting contest as the students displayed ingenuity and show cased their enormous talent to the world .
BELLOW ARE THE NAMES OF FINALISTS AND THEIR POSITIONS.
First position ( Ibitayo Precious) – St Catherine Girls Grammar school, Owo, was presented with a certificate and a 50,000 naira cash prize
Second position – ( Henry Joy )- Methodist High School, Owo. He was presented with a certificate and 30,000 naira cash prize
Third position – ( Ayodele Faith ) – St Louis Grammar School, Owo. She was also presented with a certificate and 20,000 naira cash prize
Fourth position- ( Agbebi Goodness ) – Corpus Christi Catholic College, Owo. Was presented with a certificate and 10,000 naira cash prize
Fifth position – ( Johnson Promise- ) Community Grammar School, Emure- Ile, Owo. Was presented with a certificate and 10,000 naira cash prize
Sixth position- ( Ayeni Precious ) – Adeyeri Comprehensive High School, Iyere- Owo. Was presented with certificate and 10,000 naira cash prize.
The donor and sponsor of the program Doctor Abiola Oshodi through his foundation has announced the continuation of the program on annual basis to give room and opportunity for students to discover their creative talents and showcase same to the world.
Doctor Abiola Oshodi is a known Lover of education who has given scholarships to many students in tertiary institutions on merit and also pay bursaries to many Owo Students in higher institutions. His foundation is basically focused on education amongst other community driven initiatives.
The foundation has contributed immensely to humanity and also shaped our world in ensuring that education is made easy and accessible by the all in respective of tribe, gender and religion.
