Essay Question for Senior Secondary School Students.

What are the common reasons why teenagers might be tempted to experiment with drugs, and what strategies can they employ to resist peer pressure and make healthy choices regarding substance use?

Submission Guidelines:

• This Essay Competition is open to Senior Secondary School Students (SS1-SS3) in Nigeria.
• Any student in Senior Secondary School (SS1-SS3) who registers for the contest may submit an essay.
• The essay’s length should be between 700-1000 words, and the title of the essay and the author’s name should be typed at the top of the first page (these are not included in the word count limit).
• The essay should be in British English.
• Participants should submit their registration and entry online via the Organizationswebsite www.valuesfordailyliving.com. Only one entry per person will be accepted.
• Submissions must be original, and plagiarized essays will be rejected.
• Co-authored essays will not be accepted.
• The organizers would be assigned the copyright of the entered essays.
• The deadline for submission is February 28th, 2024 (11:59 pm WAT), and participants must strictly adhere to it.

Notification of Shortlisted Students: The students will be notified by email and SMS. The names of the winners may also be published on VDL website and social media platforms. Make sure you are following @valuesfordailyliving on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for further updates.

Prizes

To encourage participation and reward excellence, the following prizes would be awarded:

First Prize: 500,000-naira, Certificate of Achievement and a Trophy.

Second Prize: 300,000 naira and a Certificate of Achievement

Third Prize: 200,000 naira and a Certificate of Achievement

Judging Criteria

• Adherence to Guidelines
• Content and Relevance to the topic
• Clarity of thought and expression
• Grammatical accuracy and overall writing quality
• Structure and organization of the essay
• Originality and creativity of the ideas presented
• Research depth and supporting evidence

Selection Procedure

The essay contest selection procedure will be as follows:

Registration:  Interested students will register for the contest by filling the registration form below. Read to the end.
Submission: Students will be required to submit their essays via VDL website (www.valuesfordailyliviing.com) by the deadline for submission, February 28th, 2024.

Judging: The essays will be judged by a panel of judges who will evaluate the submissions based on the criteria outlined. The judges will consist of a team of Professionals who will evaluate the essays anonymously. All submissions will be given equal consideration.

Shortlisting:
The essay is in three stages.

The 1st stage: Any senior student can write the essay at this stage.

The 2nd stage: VDL judges will shortlist over 100 students from the initial list that contested, for the second round.

The 3rd stage: VDL judges will shortlist the top 10 essays from the list of 100 students that wrote the essay in stage 2. This will be based on their quality, relevance, originality, and coherence. These essays will be ranked based on their scores.

The 3rd stage: VDL judges will shortlist the top 10 essays from the list of 100 students that wrote the essay in stage 2. The top 10 essay finalists will be invited to write onsite, and also make an oral presentation or discuss their essays in front of the VDL judges and a selected audience, which may include scholars, principals and teachers. This round of selection involving oral presentations provides an opportunity for finalists to showcase their writing skills and ability to communicate effectively.
The best 3 essays will be selected from here and winners will be notified and announced on all VDL platforms.

 5.⁠ ⁠Guidelines: Guidelines will be provided to the finalists regarding the presentation format and duration, as well as any materials they may require.
 

6.⁠ ⁠Evaluation: The judges will evaluate the oral presentations based on the same criteria used in the previous rounds of selection. The finalists will be judged on their ability to communicate their ideas, engage the audience, and respond to questions, which provides a more comprehensive assessment of their overall abilities.

 7.⁠ ⁠Final Ranking:  The final ranking will be determined based on the combined scores from the previous round of selection and the oral presentation. The essay with the highest score will be declared the winner of the contest, and the second and third places will also be awarded.

 8.⁠ ⁠Award Ceremony: The winners will be announced on all VDL platforms, the website and social media handles. Winners will also be contacted and invited to the award ceremony. The date of the event will be communicated to winners.