The Alice Ajisafe Award for Intellectual Curiosity banner at the Dzuels Library in Ijero-Ekiti, as children begin to arrive to pick books to read and summarise hoping to emerge winners of their respective categories
Something is happening right now in Ijero-Ekiti. Every morning since April 13, children have been walking into the Dzuels Foundation library, picking a book off the shelf, and walking out with a purpose. They read. They write. They come back the next day and do it again. On April 23, which is the World Book Day, the community will gather to find out who read the most, and the first-ever Alice Ajisafe Scholar Awards for Intellectual Curiosity will be presented. We are midway through the competition. This is the story so far.
A lasting legacy
The Alice Ajisafe Foundation (AAF) has partnered with the Dzuels Educational Foundation to sponsor and name this year’s annual reading competition in Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State. The partnership brings together two organisations that share a belief in education as the most durable form of community investment.
Dzuels Foundation has run literacy programmes in Ijero-Ekiti for several years, building a library membership of over 600 young students. What AAF has added this year is a name and with it, a story. The Alice Ajisafe Scholar Award for Intellectual Curiosity is named in honour of the late Mrs. Alice Ajisafe and is designed not only to reward the best readers but to keep her memory alive in her own community, carried forward by the children who read in her name.
A librarian guides students at the Dzuels Foundation library during the competition’s reading period
How the Competition Works
The format is straightforward and deliberately individual. Each participant borrows a book, reads it, and returns it with a written summary. Librarians log every transaction, which includes the student’s name, school, academic category, book title and the dates borrowed and returned. Each summary is graded for comprehension, clarity and structure by librarians and teachers. The student who reads the most books in their category, with strong summaries to show for it, wins.
Participants are grouped into four academic categories: Junior Elementary, Senior Elementary, Junior High School, and Senior High School. This year, approximately over 150 students from the library’s membership are taking part. The structure ensures every child is judged against peers at the same level and that every child’s effort is counted individually.
Students browse the Dzuels Foundation library independently during the competition’s daily borrowing period
What We Have Seen This Week
In the days since the competition opened, library attendance has been high. Students arrive in the mornings with their competition lanyards, scan the shelves and settle into the rhythm of reading and writing that the competition demands. The borrowing records grow longer each day.
Across all four categories, the pace has been competitive. Younger students in the Elementary levels have shown particular enthusiasm with many returning books well within a day and borrowing again immediately. Junior and Senior High School participants have taken on longer texts, and their summaries reflect a more analytical engagement with what they have read.
The children combing through the shelves to pick books for one of the daily reading sessions
What Happens on April 23
The competition closes on April 22. On the morning of April 23 which is the World Book Day, the grand finale ceremony will bring together participants, families, teachers, and community members at the Dzuels Foundation centre in Ijero-Ekiti.
Three prize tiers will be announced: a Participatory Gift for all students who met the reading threshold; an Outstanding Group prize for the top readers across all categories; and the Star Prize, the Alice Ajisafe Scholar Award itself, for the highest reader in each of the four academic levels. Award plaques will be presented to the Star Prize winners.
Last year’s final day drew approximately 500 children to the venue. This year, with the added weight of a named award and the community’s growing familiarity with the event, the expectation is for an even stronger turnout.
The Alice Ajisafe Foundation believes that literacy is the foundation on which every other opportunity is built. In Ijero-Ekiti this April, hundreds of children are proving that belief right, one book at a time.
