Phase Two
Phase Two of the 2025 Sabi Prize has kicked off. 67 contestants from 31 schools in 11 states will be competing in Phase Two.
For Phase Two, we have asked candidates to read Chapter 4 of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and write an analytical essay responding to selected prompts.
Full details of Phase Two will be posted on this website at the end of the contest.
Phase One: Qualification Round
The qualification round is open to all students who meet the eligibility criteria.
Prompt
“What is an issue facing your community? If you were in a position of leadership, what would you do about it?”
Write an essay of 250 to 350 words on the prompt above.
Guidelines for Phase One
The goal of the qualification round is to get contestants started with thinking carefully about the environment, data, and information they consume everyday. To facilitate this thought process, we have prepared the following guidelines.
- Your community could be your immediate neighbourhood or your state of residence. It should not be your family (too small) or the entire country (too big). Instead, think about your neighbourhood, your local government area, your city, or your state.
- No issue is too small to tackle or too unwieldy to address. We’re looking for evidence that you have thought carefully about the problem. In many cases, specificity may be helpful.
- Your essay should not only describe the problem but should also cover what you’d do about it. You will necessarily need to briefly discuss what position of leadership you’d be occupying and what tools you’d have at your disposal.
Contestants will be informed on the outcomes of their submissions to Phase One. We will update this page with the details of Phase Two after Phase One results are communicated to contestants.
Please email us at [email protected] with any questions.
The 2025 Sabi Prize for Critical Reading and Writing will proceed in two phases. Above, we have outlined the details for Phase One, the qualification round. After Phase One, we will reach out to candidates who are successful and inform them of the outcome.
Candidates will have advance information before Phase Two. At the end of Phase Two, we will share the outcome of the contest with the public.