Madonna Model Secondary School, Port Harcourt has emerged the winner at the just concluded International Science Fair competition held in Brazil.

Desmond Achoakawa, the coordinator, Society for the Promotion of Science and Technology in Nigeria (SOCPROTEC), said on Wednesday in Abuja that the school emerged first out of the 35 countries that participated. Mr Achoakawa said that Madonna Model Secondary School was one of the three schools that represented Nigeria at the fair.

The competition was tagged ‘MONSTRATEC’, and the countries presented more than 300 bio-digester projects, designed for decomposing organic household waste and extract gas for cooking.

The coordinator said that the[b] success of the school showed that Nigeria could actually excel in science and technology, as a relevant tool for national development.[/b]
He said that the project was chosen as the best because of its relevance to the Nigerian environment and the country’s contribution to waste management and the high cost of cooking gas.

“We have been trying to get the project registered at the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion and to see the possibility of having the bio-digester in many homes. “This will reduce the dependence on kerosene and cooking gas, as the bio-digester provides an alternative for cooking at a very minimal cost since the required raw material is waste products,” he said. Achoakawa, however, said that although the programme had been on-going for the past five years, there had been no form of collaboration or support from both government agencies and the private sector.

He, therefore, called on government and other stakeholders in the science sector to collaborate with it to ensure the growth of science and technology in Nigerian secondary schools. He said that because of Nigeria’s performance at the fair, the country had been invited to participate in another science fair in the Netherlands in June 2012. Achoakawa, therefore, called on more schools to participate in the next Olympiad, which will hold in February 2012, where schools that would participate in the Netherlands’ fair would be selected.

Joseph Ezeh, the director of Madonna Secondary School, expressed delight at the performance of the school. He expressed the hope that the country would reach its peak in science and technology if given adequate support.
Other Nigerian schools that participated in the fair are Government Day Secondary School, Wuse II and Government Science Secondary School, Pyakasa, both in the FCT.

The countries that participated include Netherlands, Paraguay, Uruguay, Turkey, Indonesia, Chile and Venezuela.

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