| Alt Name: | National Science and Maths Quiz |
| Genre: | Quiz show |
| Presenter: | Elsie Effah Kaufmann |
| Country: | Ghana |
| Language: | English |
The National Science and Maths Quiz is an annual science and mathematics content-based national level quiz competition for senior high schools in Ghana. It has been produced by Primetime Limited, an education-interest advertising and public relations agency, since 1993.[1]
The objective of the National Science & Maths Quiz is to promote the study of the sciences and mathematics, help students develop quick thinking and a probing and scientific mind about the everyday world around them, while fostering healthy academic rivalry among senior high schools.
The quiz, originally sponsored by Unilever's"Brillant Soap", is popularly referred to as “Brilla” by many who have gone through the secondary school system and it is one of the few academic events that brings all of Ghana's secondary schools together.[2] [3] The National Science and Maths Quiz is the longest running educational programme on Ghanaian television. It is broadcast on GTV during the quiz season every Saturday at 11am and Wednesdays at 4pm.
The idea for the production of a quiz programme aimed at encouraging the study of the sciences and mathematics was not mooted at a national science fair or conference. It happened on the tennis court of the University of Ghana, Legon in 1993. Kwaku Mensa-Bonsu, then managing director of Primetime, was on the court to play a tennis game with his playmates, the late Professors Marian Ewurama Addy and Ebenezer Kweku Awotwe. 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.[4] From Awotwe's explanation, Mensa-Bonsu got the idea of putting together a quiz programme on science and mathematics.
When the quiz started, it involved only 32 schools across the country, and these were divided into the Northern Sector and Southern Sector, with 16 schools per sector. Winners in both sectors were then brought to Accra for the national championship. Prempeh College won the maiden edition.
In 1997, the geographical sector system was abandoned, and two northern sector schools (from the old format), Opoku Ware School and Prempeh College made it to the finals where Opoku Ware School won its first trophy.
In 1998, the tournament became known as the National Science & Maths Quiz, when the quiz show lost its original sponsorship from Brillant Soap. Subsequently, in 2012, the Ghana Education Service, through the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) took up the sponsorship of the programme. In terms of participation, beginning in 2000, the number of schools was increased to 40. The number of participating schools again, was increased in 2013 to 81, although 66 ultimately showed up for the competition. Thus, the participation format was changed to a three-team contest instead of the two-team contest which had characterized the competition since its inception in 1993. To give the programme a national character, the quiz has since 2014 involved 135 schools from all parts of Ghana. Since 2014, 108 schools are selected from regional and zonal competitions and qualifiers to join 27 seeded schools (quarter-finalists from the previous year's competition) at the National Championships. The NSMQ regions are Greater Accra, Central, Eastern and Ashanti Regions while the zones are Bono-Ahafo, Western, Volta-Oti and Northern Zones.
The first quiz mistress was the late Professor Marian Ewurama Addy, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Ghana, Legon. She was quiz-mistress from 1993 till 2000. “When in 1993/94, during the planning of a televised quiz programme on Science, I was asked to be the Quiz Mistress, I could not say No”, she wrote in her memoir, Rewards: An Autobiography. “I was interested in females becoming scientists and this was an opportunity to invite the young ones to become scientists…I thought that this was a most effective way of being a role model,” she added. In recognition of her contributions to promoting the study of Science and Mathematics among girls through the NSMQ, Prof. Addy was named the Marketing Woman of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana in 1995.
Eureka Emefa Adomako, a botanist at the University of Ghana, Legon, took over as quiz-mistress from 2001 to 2005, having been recommended by Prof. Addy. Dr. Adomako took charge of the programme until she had to leave for postgraduate studies. Before leaving, just as Prof. Addy recommended her as quiz mistress, Dr. Adomako recommended that Dr. Kaufmann take over as quiz mistress.
In 2006, Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann, the founding Head of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Ghana, Legon, took over as quiz mistress.[5] [6] Over the years, she has succeeded in bringing her own style to the programme, occasionally injecting some humour into an otherwise formal programme. As the chairperson of the moderation team, Dr. Kaufmann is supported by a team of consultants made up of Prof. W. A. Asomaning, Dr. Ebenezer Owusu, Dr. Amos Kuditcher and Dr. Douglas Adu-Gyamfi, all of the University of Ghana, Legon. At the preliminary stages, the quiz is moderated by Drs. Anita Oppong-Quaicoe, Thelma Ohene-Agyei and Gladys Odey Schwinger.
Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School, (PRESEC-Legon) has been the most successful school in the quiz so far, having made twelve appearances at the finals, including five consecutive grande finales. The school has won the competition eight times, a record that includes back-to-back wins on two occasions. Achimota School is the only coeducational school to have won the competition. No all-girls' school has ever won the competition. Only 11 schools in Ghana have won the competition since its inception.
In 2021, Primetime Limited launched the STEM Festival comprising Mentorship Sessions and the Sci-Tech Fair.[7] The Sci-Tech Fair component includes a Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge and an Exhibition open to Senior High Schools, Basic and Junior High Schools, Tech firms and start-ups.[8]
Three schools compete in each contest and each school is represented by two contestants. The current quiz mistress is Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann. Presently, every contest is composed of five rounds with the following rules:
| Year | scope=col style="background-color: gold" | Winners | scope=col style="background-color: silver" | 1st Runner-up | scope=col style="background-color: #cc9966" | 2nd Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Prempeh College | Achimota School | ||||
| 1995 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Opoku Ware School | ||||
| 1996 | Prempeh College | Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School | ||||
| 1997 | Opoku Ware School | Prempeh College | ||||
| 1998 | Achimota School | St. Peter's Senior High School | Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School | |||
| 1999 | Mfantsipim School | Wesley Girls' High School | ||||
| 2000 | St. Peter's Senior Secondary School | Mfantsipim School | ||||
| 2001 | Pope John Secondary School | Ghana Secondary Technical School | ||||
| 2002 | Opoku Ware School | St. Peter's Senior High School | ||||
| 2003 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Opoku Ware School | ||||
| 2004 | Achimota School | St. Peter's Senior Secondary School | ||||
| 2005 | St. Peter's Senior Secondary School | Opoku Ware School | ||||
| 2006 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | St. Peter's Senior High School | ||||
| 2007 | St. Augustine's College | Kumasi Anglican Senior High School | ||||
| 2008 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Opoku Ware School | ||||
| 2009 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Achimota School | ||||
| 2010 | No competition held | |||||
| 2011 | No competition held | |||||
| 2012 | Ghana Secondary Technical School | St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary | ||||
| 2013 | St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School | Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School | Mfantsiman Girls Senior High School | |||
| 2014 | Mfantsipim School | Ghana Secondary Technical School | St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary | |||
| 2015 | Prempeh College | Adisadel College | University Practice Senior High School | |||
| 2016 | Adisadel College | Opoku Ware School | Mfantsipim School | |||
| 2017 | Prempeh College | St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School | Adisadel College | |||
| 2018 | St. Peter's Senior High School | West Africa Senior High School | Adisadel College | |||
| 2019 | Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | St. Peter's Senior Secondary School | |||
| 2020 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Adisadel College | Opoku Ware School | |||
| 2021 | Prempeh College | Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Keta Senior High Technical School | ||
| 2022 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Prempeh College | Adisadel College | |||
| 2023 | Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School | Achimota School | Opoku Ware School | |||
Here is the league of finalists at the National Science and Math Quiz.
| Rank | School | scope=col style="background-color: gold" | Number of wins ! | scope=col style="background-color: silver" | 1st Runner-up ! | scope=col style="background-color: #cc9966" | 2nd Runner-up ! | Total finals | Years won | Years 1st runner-up | Years 2nd runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 1995, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2020, 2022, 2023 | 1996, 2013, 2019, 2021 | – | ||||
| 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1994, 1996, 2015, 2017, 2021 | 1997, 2022 | – | ||||
| 3 | St. Peter's Senior High School | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 2000, 2005, 2018 | 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006 | 2019 | |||
| 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 1997, 2002 | 1995, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2016 | 2020, 2023 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1998, 2004 | 1994, 2009, 2023 | – | ||||
| 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1999, 2014 | 2000 | 2016 | ||||
| 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2007, 2019 | – | – | ||||
| 8 | Adisadel College | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2016 | 2015, 2020 | 2017, 2018, 2022 | |||
| 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2012 | 2001, 2014 | – | ||||
| 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2013 | 2017 | – | ||||
| 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2001 | – | – | ||||
| 12 | St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | 2012 | 2014 | |||
| 13 | West Africa Senior High School | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | – | 2018 | – | |||
| 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | – | 2007 | – | ||||
| 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | – | 1999 | – | ||||
| 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 2021 | ||||
| 16 | University Practice Senior High School | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 2015 | |||
| 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 2013 |
List of senior secondary schools in Ghana