8 Out 16 Participants Of Busy Brains Mecama Educational Games Competition Qualify For Second Round
By Kazeem Awojoodu, Ibadan
Eight participants of the Mecama Educational Games Busy Brains Competition have qualified for second round.
Naijanewshub.com.ng reports that no fewer than eight (8) students out of the sixteen (16) participants at the ongoing Busy Brains Competition for primary and secondary schools in Ibadan metropolis have qualified into the second round of the game.
The participants who were between age 5 to 15 represented their various schools in both primary and secondary categories at the maiden edition of the Busy Brains competition that was organized by Mecama Educational Games, kicked-started at Al Bushra Model School, Felele Ibadan, the Capital City of Oyo state on Tuesday 8th November, 2022.
Speaking with journalists, the brain behind the competition, the initiator of Mecama Educational Games, who doubled as a teacher, an author and education instructor of years of experience, Mr. Akinwole Adebayo Najeemdeen stressed that the whole idea was like a dream that was conceptualized by a friend who is an ardent Mecama games promoter.
He noted further that the idea of the competition become more visible when the Mecama games started gaining more audience, thanking God that the dreams behind the competition leads to the successful event tagged the Busy Brains Competition.
While talking about the importance of Mecama Educational Games, Mr. Adebayo in his words said, “the games are board and card games that are clearly written and easy-to-understand rules and manuals, which have been designed into five brands, with the aims of aiding learning processes.
“The games which are technologically adoptable are kind of instructional and learning materials designed in a playable and attractive way with a view to bring about the advantages inherent in the games. Adebayo stressed.
Mecama Educational Games according to the convener are MARCO, E’MARCO, COGA, ANTO and MARCO PLUS.
Adebayo confirmed that the games have been patented by the trademark, Commercial Law Department, Patent and Design Division, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
While highlighting the main reason behind the games, Adebayo said, “as a teacher of many years of experience the games have been carefully designed to change English studies and Mathematics curriculums into games, with the intention to spur, increase and sustain interest in mathematical calculations and improve English language understanding, writing and use, to cater for cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains of learning of players, to also present both English and Mathematics subjects in a fun ways to the students in order to make their learning more simple, interactive, fun and affordable and as well to entertain players and onlookers as they marry fun with learning.
“The games have also been designed to build confidence in a players in the face of real life academic and social situations among many other reasons.” Adebayo said.
While speaking about the Busy Brains Competition, Adebayo maintained that the first edition of the competition started with 16 participants, stressing that first, second and third winners are expected at the end of the three-day competition and they are going home with various prizes. He also noted that the first and second winners of the competition will automatically emerged as the Mecama Gold and Silver Young Ambassadors and they will be place on a monthly stipends for a period of twelve months where another set of Ambassadors will emerge.
Adebayo, however made use of the medium to solicit support of the idea from well meaning Nigerians. He said, ” this is my own part of giving back to the society, there is no doubt that Mecama games are facing a lot of challenges and one of them is the funding, out of the five games, we have only managed to come up with two which are available for sale to schools, parents and all the stakeholders, I’m using this medium to solicit for financial contributions towards the mass production of the games for a wider circulations, we welcome all the stakeholders, intending shareholders, serious investment models, partnerships, as well as other various contributions that will be a plus for the future of Mecama Educational Games.”
In their separate remarks Mrs. Rufai Rukayat Opeyemi, an English teacher from CTY Model and International School, and Mr. Olawuyi Oladayo from Spring Board Private School Orita Challenge called on Nigerians not to relent in any forms of supports toward attaining the best educational pursuit for their children, they urged parents, teachers, school proprietors, government agencies such as ministry of education both at the state and federal level to support educational materials such as Mecama Educational Games which comes with potentials of enhancing learning, and promotion of growth and development of our students.
Some of the qualified students, Adedeji Abdulrahamon from CTY Model College, Olaoluwa Fola from Spring Board Private School, Balogun Abdulahi, CTY International all pledged to emerge as the overall winner of the competition on their various categories.
The schools that participated in the competition are CTY International School, Alim Lam School, Treasure Private School, Spring Board School, CTY Model College, and Al-Bushra Model College Felele Ibadan.