NOUN student shines at Akwa Ibom essay writing competition, commends VC

Efforts of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to make education accessible to all Nigerians irrespective of age, tribe and economic circumstances are bearing the expected fruits as a student of the university, Jahaziel Bassey Uko won a prize for emerging second in the Akwa Ibom State’s essay competition.

The competition was organised for undergraduates as part of activities to celebrate the state’s 35-year anniversary.

Uko a 300-level student of Computer Science Education, emerged second in the competition which had the topic: "Akwa Ibom, The Land of Limitless Possibilities" of 300words and attracted 469 entries of which about 335 were males and 144 were females.

Speaking to NOUN News after the award ceremony held on September 23, 2022 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, the student expressed satisfaction with the flexibility and quality of services in NOUN.

“NOUN service delivery is top-notch with its improvement on comprehensive result portal, the student complaint portal, frequent facilitations, etc. This shows that NOUN is improving on a daily basis,” he said.

Uko stated that he chose to study in NOUN because of its flexibility; working and learning, he added, has enabled him to pay his bills as he is solely responsible for his bills.

“I have been doing quite well in my academic and behavioural development. I recently got recommended for incubation and zonal competition after carefully writing a Business Plan GST302, one with potential to improve quality education and reduce unemployment in Nigeria,” he explained.

The competition’s runner up, who is gearing towards becoming a Tech-Entreprenuership and Research Development Scientist focusing on using technology to improve the standard and quality of education as well as making education individualised, added that the quality of services he is receiving in NOUN has convinced him he is treading on a good path of building his career in achieving his goals.

While commending the Vice-Chancellor, the award winner stated that“I am so privileged of communicating my view with the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Olufemi Peters and to my greatest surprise, he actually replied my mail, and that went a long way to prove to me that NOUN is concerned about helping Nigerians grow professionally.”

Meanwhile, the award earned him the sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand (N750,000) from the Akwa-Ibom State, a brand new tablet x8 Samsung and additional of seven hundred and fifty thousand (N750,000) from the former governor of Zamfara State, His Excellency, Abdul’Aziz Yari.