With enthusiasm written all over them, hundreds of secondary school students converged at 10 centres across Lagos State to participate in the first stage of the PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge 2014 at the weekend.

One hundred successful participants will move to the second stage scheduled for Saturday, December 6, 2014, while the grand finale, involving the best four candidates in the second stage, will jostle for the grand prize of N700,000 cash, a laptop and other gifts. The competition, which is in its second year, is among SS 2 and SS3 in secondary schools in Lagos State.

A high percentage of the candidates who registered sat for the examination which lasted about an hour. The exam was witnessed by officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Education with the Nigeria Police providing security.

Clutching their gift items from the sponsor, the students expressed high hope of scaling the hurdles up to the final stage. Fatiah Balogun, an SS2 student of Jane-Nath College, Ipakodo, believed she would make the grade and commended PZ Cussons Foundation, organisers of the competition, for encouraging chemistry education. “I hope they will try and extend it beyond Lagos State and make it a national competition so as to encourage more students to study Chemistry,” she said.

Mr Bello Adedamola Mukaila, Deputy Director of Education for District II, Maryland, described the processes as well structured. “The examination has been ably conducted and I thank PZ Cussons for a job well done,” he said.

Other centres included Vetland Senior Grammar School, Agege; Immaculate Heart Senior Secondary School, Maryland; Eko-Akete Senior Grammar School, Lagos; Odo-Obara Senior High School, Epe; Surulere Girls Senior Grammar School, Surulere; Awori-Ajeromi Senior Grammar School, Agboju; Badagry Senior Grammar School, Badagry; Ikeja Senior Grammar School, Bolade Oshodi; State Senior High School, Alimosho; and Oriwu Senior Model College, Ikorodu.

Apart from the ultimate prize, the first to third runners-ups will win laptops and cash prizes ranging from N300,000 to N500,000 while Teachers and Schools of the top four contestants will also be rewarded with cash prizes and Chemistry books.

PZ Cussons Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc. It started the competition last year.