PRIZE-GIVING CEREMONY FOR THE ‘BACK TO SCHOOL’ ESSAY COMPETITION WINNERS

In January 2014, Shule Direct organized an essay competition for Secondary School students titled ‘Back to School’. Students, Form II – Form IV, were required to write on the most interesting topic they had learnt at school, why they think it was interesting and how they can use the knowledge from the topic to help the community.

It was open from 24th of January up until 24th March 2014. Over 200 entries were submitted, out of which 186 qualified for the first round of the judging process. Among the 186 qualified essays, 103 were boys and 83 were girls. 27 Secondary Schools from 7 regions participated in the competition. The schools with the most entries were School of St. Jude of Arusha, Loyola High School of Dar, Azania Secondary School of Dar, Zanaki Secondary School of Dar and Morogoro International School of Morogoro.

The 1st place winner, Kazim Mohamed of Al- Muntazir Islamic Seminary, gets 500,000/- in cash, a Samsung tablet and three textbooks. 2nd place winner, Joseph Muhweza of School of St. Jude of Arusha gets 400,000/- in cash, a Samsung tablet and three textbooks. 3rd place winner, Rogate Exaudi Maro of Loyola High School gets 300,000/- in cash, a Samsung tablet and three textbooks. 4th place Achile Tigawa of Azania Boys Secondary School gets 200,000/- in cash and three textbooks. 5th place, Zawadi Issa Silim of Zanaki Girls Secondary School gets 100,000/- and three textbooks. The Semi- finalists (Top 25) are each awarded a set of three textbooks.

Shule Direct organized the competition to highlight the value of education for students in Secondary Schools, to cultivate academic competitiveness and academic excellence among students, to enable students to relate academic solutions to real-life challenges, to promote communication skills and confidence, to give a platform for young people to participate and share their opinions and to appreciate and recognize efforts by hardworking students.

Back to School Essay Competition 2014 was sponsored by Vodacom Tanzania as the main sponsor and other sponsors are Samsung, Radar Education, UNESCO Tanzania and Bongo5. It is an annual competition scheduled to take place at the beginning of the academic year for all Secondary School students in Tanzania.

1st Place Winner Kazim Mohamed Receives his Prize.

2nd Place Joseph from St. Jude.

3rd Place Winner Rogate Maro.