The Platform Schools, Ipaja, Lagos, has won the eighth National Interschool Music Competition and Academic Award.
Platform Schools who emerged winner of the competition won a sum of N200,000; Homeland School won second position got N100,000, and Lagoon School, who came third received a sum of N75,000
Titled, ‘Celebrating diversity in unity,’ over 10 schools participated in the grand-finale which took place at the University of Lagos.
Speaking about his school’s success, the elated Director, of Platform Schools, Dr Bola Obe, revealed that it was a daunting task but he was happy that in the end, his students emerged the winners.
He said, “The way the world is, one can’t depend only on academics. Music is part of academics. You can’t talk about music, without talking about academics. It is part of the curriculum. With music, you can pass messages. Music and academics, go hand in hand. I encourage all schools and the government to invest in music.
“Music is not only to make noise. You look at creativity and innovation. Our school blended Western instruments with African instruments. You can see that we are different and creative.”
Executive Director, the National Inter-school Music Competition, Olubunmi Adebowale, said, “We understand how music affects them to learn more and concentrate more in class, and more importantly, it brings out their raw talent. With this platform, we make students understand that music is good. We believe that with music, with their raw talent, we would be able to have good minds towards our country, humanity, and governance.”
Head of Platform Schools, Mrs Lois Afolayan, added, This is the first time we are competing. We were here last year just to entertain. But this year, during the audition, we were sent an invite to come compete. It has not been easy putting efforts together. It took us a lot of effort and creativity to bring the children together to perform the instruments and come up with a nice outcome. The children sometimes sacrificed their Saturdays and learning time for practice. We also gave the room for the children to contribute their opinions during rehearsals.”
A student of Platform, and second-runner-up of individual award of the Inter-school Music Award, Tobi Brown, revealed that “We tried our best. Being here for the first time and yet winning the competition. I am happy. Our hard work brought us this far.”
