In a major shift from music and reveller parade, the  Cross River State Carnival Commission has launched an education drive aimed at reviving reading and writing culture among students across the state.

The Commission on Monday unveiled the 2026 Carnival Calabar Essay and Creative Writing Competition, with scholarships, laptops, textbooks and other learning materials  lined up as prizes for winners.

Chairman of the Commission, *Sir Gabe Onah, said the initiative was designed to leverage the global brand of Carnival Calabar to promote human capital development and youth creativity beyond entertainment and tourism.

“Carnival must contribute to the intellectual growth of our young people. We want to create opportunities for students to showcase their writing skills and be rewarded for it,” Onah said while addressing newsmen in Calabar.

To ensure fairness, the competition will be conducted under standardized examination conditions* in six centres across the three senatorial districts.

The centres are Obudu and Ogoja in the North; Ikom and Ugep  in the Central; and  Akamkpa and Calabar in the South.

He said category A will be  for secondary school students while Category B will be for tertiary institution students.

The Department of Theatre and Media Studies, University of Calabar, will independently evaluate all entries to guarantee credibility and transparency.

He said for secondary schools, overall best contestant will win  full scholarship and  top 3 winners laptops, schools of top 3 winners  laptops to support digital teaching  while the top 10 schools will cart home textbooks, branded exercise books, school bags, pens and mathematical sets for their effort.

For the tertiary Institutions,  he said the overall best contestant  will be rewarded with Scholarships, the top 3 winners laptops  while the  top 5 departments represented will win branded hardcover books for academic use

According to Onah, the goal is to “stimulate renewed interest in reading and creative writing” while equipping schools with resources for learning.

The Carnival boss said the programme aligns with the state government’s agenda to reposition Carnival Calabar as a platform for socio-economic and intellectual development.

“We are moving Carnival beyond a 26-day event. We want it to impact education, empower youths and build the next generation of thinkers and writers from Cross River,” he added.

The Commission urged principals, provosts, vice-chancellors and students across the state to take advantage of the opportunity.

Education stakeholders described the move as a welcome development, noting that incentives like scholarships and digital tools could rekindle students’ interest in books.

Registration details for the 2026 competition are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.