Watching Presec at the National Science & Maths quiz competition

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Earlier today, I attended my first ever National Science & Maths quiz (NSMQ) contest viewing. I was not a part of the Presec team when I was there and when my mates were repping Presby Boys Secondary School - Legon in the Brilla, I was in the US at the time. After vim visiting the Presec NSMQ team on Thursday and encouraging them, I took some time off today to see them in action versus Wesley Girls High School and St. Augustine's College, 2 other great public high schools in Ghana. The competition is ongoing at the Legon N-Block. Presec is being represented by Bernard (front) and Baidoo (behind him). I captured what happened via tweets (as usual) and wanted to share them with you.
I like Wesley Girls much more than I used while in Presec. There was some small friendly banter between the Presec guys and Gey Hey girls in our Barcamp Ghana whatsapp group today. Big ups to Gey Hey girls though! Beauty and brains. Some dude at the contest today agreed in a loud voice.
Because the event is at Legon, many Presecans thronged the venue. Presecans are everywhere, we are plenty in Legon, Tech, USA, Europe, you name it. There were a few old students (Odadee) present too. I joined the Presec contingent in the front rows. :-)
Wey Gey Hey took an early lead. I wasn't the least concerned. It's like watching winners like Manchester United. If the game is not over, the game is definitely not lost. We're never defeated until fat Auntie Julie sings. Ajusco o Ajusco! That's an inside joke for Presecans & Odadee :-)
The girls from the top exam-passing school in Ghana were tying the boys from Presec (5-time winners of this competition) boot for boot, answer for answer. No shaking.
Do not underrate the words "more vim". If you never hear yourself saying it and you are a young Ghanaian, get on it.
Tenace mentioned that girls tend to do better in biology questions for problem of the day. Naturally, Presec supporters were happy to see physics served.
Bernard Agyemang Twum & Frimpong Apenteng Baidoo represented Presec today. Two unassuming boys who are brilliant and sharp. They will be legends in Presec when this is all said and done. Remember their names.
Talking about brilliant, the NSMQ used to be called the Brilliant National Science & Maths quiz. There's no title sponsor now. There should be. Sam Addo and Irene agree. I spoke to the producers of the quiz, Primetime Limited, will see if I can help them get some sponsorship. You think I can't? You haven't met me then :-)
The quiz mistress these days is Dr. Elsie Kaufmann, a Senior Lecturer at Legon in Biomedical Engineering. She was a success mentor at Barcamp Accra 2012 and it was great to get to know her. I sought her out after the quiz with two brilliant young Ghanaians who are joining top universities in California later this year. I love how Dr. Kaufmann championed the idea of problem solving and not just getting correct answers.
The Presec boys and Gey Hey girls understood this and did justice to the question of the day. So after 2 rounds, both schools were still tied. What would separate them?
The next round would. My alma mater's team confidently answered all true & false questions correctly as the Cape Coast based kids had two wrong each. Wake up call. Leave them in you wake!
The final round involved answering questions by responding to riddles and clues. We could smell victory. Gey Hey struck first but Presec struck multiple times. Mr. Peprah - 1-time National Best Teacher - had to cool down the students as they got louder and louder. He is the major trainee for the squad, along with Mr. Afram.
After Presec rang the bell earliest and answered the last question correctly, the Presec contingent got into a loud chorus of "Ole ole ole! Ole! Ole!". Victory was ours.
The school anthem followed. "Happy are we, studious are we". Presec is a very religious school and you could see it in the lyrics. Presecans and Odadees joined in. Presec was victorious. The Christian Gentlemen were moving on to the semis. The boys had been praying while the contest was tight, it was great to see.
Presec moved on to the semi-finals to face Kumasi-based schools - Prempeh College & T. I. AMASS. The contest will likely be at 12 noon on Monday. Join in and support if you can. Trust the boys to do the do.
I was cheering for Presec, that is understandable. But there is a reason why I hadn't been to Presec in a couple of years. I cheer for Ghana and its youth a lot more these days. That's why we had a junior camp in Ketasco and not any in some of these other schools yet. It was great to see Nat Alpha of Skoul Eye, who organized the Ketasco junior camp at the N Block sharing flyers about an event he was organizing to bring Ghanaian schools together via brass band music. Great kid. They are all over the country. They are versatile and want to contribute to the national agenda as much as they can. Let's support, influence, inspire and motivate them.

Turns out one of the Wey Gey Hey teachers is an Odadee - Reginald from Class of 2005. I talked to him about doing something at Wesley Girls. I would have talked to many of the other teachers too but I know we have people like me all over the country who stop at nothing to do what they can to contribute to educating young Ghanaians. It's that GhanaThinking thing. More vim to all of us!

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