Pope John SHS, on Tuesday, lost to St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary in what may be the most exciting preliminary contest so far in the 2018 National Science & Maths Quiz and Science Festival.
The 2001 NSMQ winners who many tipped to win the contest failed to live up to expectation as they trailed throughout the competition.
The nail-biting contest was keenly competed for by the Central Region-based Swedru SHS and the eventual victors, St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary in a tie breaker.
It will be recalled that Swedru SHS denied St. Augustine’s College from qualifying from the Central Regional Competition and thus, could not be easily written off at the Nationals.
Swesco made their intension known from the start of the contest as they led all four rounds but could not maintain the momentum to the end as they left the boys from St. Francis Xavier Jnr Seminary to answer three out of four riddles and equalize their points, with POJOSS succeeding in answering one of the riddles of the round.
At the end of the fifth round, Pope John SHS was trailing with 39 points while Swedru SHS and St. Francis Xavier Jnr. Seminary both had 44 points.
After three rounds of unanswered questions by the duo, it was St. Francis Xavier who found the right response to the question posed by the quiz mistress.
The contest ended with the Upper West Region-based boys’ school carrying the day with 47 points, closely followed by Swedru SHS with 44 points while Pope John SHS ended the contest with 39 points.
All hope is not lost for Swedru SHS and Pope John SHS as their scores are high enough to push them through to the one-eighth stage of the contest as one of the 18 highest-scoring losing schools, alongside the 36 preliminary contest winners.
Sunyani SHS also beat Afia Kobi Ampem SHS and Tepa SHS in a less competitive contest to pick a slot in the next round of competition.
The National Science & Maths Quiz and Science Festival is sponsored by the Ghana Education Service through the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), with support from GCB Bank, GTP, Lancaster University Ghana, Academic City College, Medifem Multi-Specialist Hospital, Accra College of Medicine, Hawtie Makeup, West African Centre for Cell Biology for Infectious Pathogens and Awake Purified Drinking water. The Sci-Tech Fair is sponsored by Goil, Prudential Life Insurance Ghana, and Tullow, while Bond Savings & Loans and RMG Ghana Ltd are sponsoring the Mentorship Sessions.
