Season Five (5) of the Young Minds Intellectual Quiz Championship for Basic Schools in the Keta Municipality and Anloga District of the Volta Region is underway in the two administrative districts. The Co-ordinator of the event, Mr. Courage Fiawogbey told our news team in an interview that thirty-two (32) private and public schools from the two (2) districts are taking part in this year’s competition which is expected to be climaxed before this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The Young Minds Intellectual Basic Schools Science and Mathematics competition was started in 2006 to improve the pupils’ performance at the BECE level in the two beneficiary districts.
This was against the backdrop that performance at the BECE level in the two sister districts was very abysmal, leading to serious concerns being raised by all stakeholders of education in the area.
In the current season, the 32 schools have been grouped into three, ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ with several episodes all culminating into the grand finale ahead of the 2024 BECE. Between sixty (60) and eighty (80) questions based on Science, Mathematics, and Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) are asked within each episode which is broken into five (5) rounds namely Fundamentals of Mathematics, a Shark Session, Problem of the Day, True or False Series and Riddles.
The contest is being organized by the Young Foundation Builders’ Network based at Keta and Anloga in collaboration with the Project Smile Foundation at Adidome and the Keta Municipal and Anloga District Directorates of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Current sponsors of the competition include producers of Top Choco and Flora Tissues in Accra and Tema as well as the Sitsofe Co-operative Credit Union (SICCU) at Keta.
Episode Five (5) which takes place at Anloga, involved three (3) basic schools from Group ‘C’ namely Christ the King and The Lord’s Academy Preparatory Schools from Anloga-Kportorgbey and Anloga-Lashibi respectively as well as the Phileo D.A. Basic School at Dzita-Agbledomi.
At the end of the contest, the Lord’s Academy Preparatory School and the Phileo D.A. Basic School qualified for the next stage of the contest, having beaten Christ the King Preparatory School with 47.5 and 26 points respectively to place first and second positions. Christ the King Preparatory School came third with 17.5 points.
Master Collins Delali Fiazorli, representative of the Lord’s Academy Preparatory School, Miss Grace Dordor from the Phileo D.A. Basic School as well as Miss Juliet Etornam Tudzi, from Christ the King Preparatory School, all described the contest as interesting and very educative, admitting that the contest had allowed them to learn harder and brace themselves up for bigger assignments as future leaders of the country.
The Co-ordinator and Executive Producer of the Young Minds Intellectual Quiz Championship, Mr. Courage Fiawogbey was grateful to the contestants, teachers, and other stakeholders of education in the area for their interest and efforts at sustaining the competition for the past five (5) years.
He described the enthusiasm of the pupils and contestants as very encouraging and refreshing, saying that has been the backbone for the motivation of the team to forge ahead for all these years to leave a legacy in the educational space of the two districts.
Mr. Fiawogbey noted that the major challenge facing the programme is funding including swards to motivate the pupils not only at all the early stages of the contest but also in the grand finale. This, he noted would whip up more enthusiasm in the programme and also motivate the pupils to give their best in their studies.
He therefore used the opportunity to appeal to the citizens of the area, companies and institutions within the Keta and Anlo districts and beyond including those outside the region and country to fully lend their support to the initiative.
All fifteen (15) participants from the three (3) schools received Top Choco and Flora Tissue products from some of the sponsors of the competition.
