Finally after a long wait, brought about by the unprecedented covid-19 pandemic, the annual national science and maths quiz(NSMQ) is expected to commence soon.
This competition has undoubtedly been one of the most thrilling educational activities in the country. Schools compete to show their 'class' to one another. What at all led to the inception of this great competition. Let us look at some history behind it.
The idea for the production of a science and maths quiz programme was not from any national or any goverrnment agency.
It all began in early 1993, on the tennis court of the University of Ghana, Legon. Mr. Kwaku Mensa-Bonsu, then Managing Director of Primetime, was at the court to play tennis with his playmates, the late Professors Marian Ewurama Addy and Ebenezer Kweku Awotwe.
Mr. Mensa-Bonsu was curious as to why birds could stand on a live electric wire without getting electrocuted, but human beings could not do same. From Prof. Awotwe’s explanation, Mr. Mensa-Bonsu brought up the idea of putting together a quiz programme on Science and Maths. Since then, the National Science & Maths Quiz (NSMQ) has seen lots of exciting editions.
When the quiz started, it involved only 32 schools. Over the years however, it has gained a truly national character, involving135 schools from all parts of Ghana since 2014.
The quiz, popularly referred to as “Brilla” by many who have gone through the secondary school system is an extremely important event on the schools' academic calendar.
Students who are dedicated by the school to partake in it are highly respected both on and off campus, by both students and the administration. In fact, in most schools, they are given entirely different treatments, special foods, accommodation, class and a whole lot of things.
All because schools would want to do their best in motivating to students to bring home the crown, which is a source of prestige to the school.
Now let us look at the winners of the competition since it's inception over the years.
School Year
Prempeh College, Kumasi 1994
Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon 1995
Prempeh College, Kumasi 1996
Opoku Ware School, Kumasi 1997
Achimota School, Accra 1998
Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast 1999
St. Peter’s Secondary School, Nkwatia 2000
Pope John SHS, Koforidua 2001
Opoku Ware School, Kumasi 2002
Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon 2003
Achimota School, Accra 2004
St. Peter’s Secondary School, Nkwatia 2005
Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon 2006
St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast 2007
Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon 2008
Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon 2009
Ghana Secondary Technical School, Takoradi 2012
St. Thomas Aquinas SHS, Accra 2013
Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast 2014
Prempeh College, Kumasi 2015
Adisadel College 2016
Prempeh College 2017
St. Peter’s Senior High School, Nkwatia 2018
St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast 2019
From the list, you could see that Presbyterian Boys SHS have the most glories to their name, winning a whooping 5 times. Also setting a record of winning the event back to back in 2008 and 2009.
Looking critically, it looks like it's been too long a time since the presec guys win the event, are they asleep? Well they have to let us know if they aren't. Prempeh college are the rounders up, with four titles. They also have the honour of being the first champions of the competition. Congratulations to all schools in the list.
So what are the subsequent years going to be like? Are we going to have new schools coming into this list or we will see the usual names? The future holds the answers to these.
Again one concern I will like to raise is that, some schools really don't put in any concern over this competition at all. A typical example is St. James Seminary SHS. This is a very good school but because the administration shows very little interest in this competition, they have a very poor history in it. I think it's high time these schools realized the importance of the competition and put in interest.
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