Features
Engage the youth with quality, productive programmes on TV
- /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Some-youth-watching-TV-Pix-1.jpg&description=Engage the youth with quality, productive programmes on TV', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Some-youth-watching-TV-Pix-1.jpg&description=Engage the youth with quality, productive programmes on TV', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
Most Ghanaians and for that matter parents and guardians will agree with me that for the past few months, their wards, especially those in Senior High Schools (SHS) have been kept active and alive due to this popular television programme dubbed, “National Science and Mathematics Quiz” (NSMQ) competition, the last one being the finals, which took place at the premises of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Friday, November 26, 2021, in Kumasi.
This live and attractive programme on the national television screen kept these young lads, parents and guardians, teachers, lecturers and past students of various Senior High Schools across the country, glued to their television sets to watch the programme with attentive minds as it has usually been competitive and keenly contested by representatives of various schools.
NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MATHS QUIZ AND BRAINS BEHIND
The programme had been interesting with the competitors displaying youthful exuberance, wisdom, brain racking, dexterity, smartness, intelligence and good skills among other positive attributes. The students are delight to watch and the standing ovation from their supporters speaks volume of the programme.
For the benefit of my readers, patrons and Ghanaians in general who did not know how this particular programme came about and has now gained currency on media landscape and the country in general, it is important to trace the background of how it all started to the present state.
We are told that the idea for the production of quiz programme aimed at encouraging the study of science and mathematics was not mooted at a national science fair or conference. Rather, it happened at a tennis court of the University of Ghana, Legon.
Mr Kwaku Mensa-Bonsu, then the Managing Director of Primetime, was at the court to play the game after his own heart with his playmates, the late Professor Marian Ewurama Addy and Ebenezer Kweku Awotwe. Mr Mensa-Bonsu was then curious as to why birds could stand on a live electricity wire without getting electrocuted, but humans could not do same. From Professor Awotwe’s explanation, Mr Mensa-Bonsu got the idea of putting together a quiz programme on science and mathematics. That was how it all began in 1993 since then, the National Science and Mathematics Quiz (NSMQ) has witnessed a number of exciting editions each year.
HOW POPULAR HAS THE PROGRAMME BEEN?
The programme, as we are told, is the largest running independent production on television in Ghana. It is very popular with not only its main target group- Senior High School students- but also with parents, especially with former students (Old boys and girls) who take pride in the performance of their schools on this programme. Some of the old students even pit camps in drinking bars and restaurants watching the programme collectively while they enjoyed themselves and teased one another. It has been a spectacular and delight to watch this interesting programme as it unfolds on our screens.
The objective of the NSNQ has been to promote the study of the sciences and mathematics, help students develop quick thinking and a probing scientific mind about things around them, while fostering healthy academic rivalry among senior high schools. Without doubt, these aims and objectives have been fully realised or achieved to a large extent.
The quiz, popularly referred to as “brilla” by many who have gone through the secondary school system, is by far one of the few academic events that bring all of Ghana’s secondary schools together.
INTRODUCTION OF WEST AFRICAN VERSION OF NSMQ
It will interest readers and patrons of this particular column to know that because of the popularity of the programme in Ghana, efforts were made in 2007 to introduce a West African version of the programme known as the West African Science and Mathematics Quiz for Anglophone West Africa which was launched in Accra. The maiden edition featured three teams each from Ghana and Nigeria which went down well. The maiden edition, we are told, was won by Ghana. However, due to sponsorship issues, the programme could not be sustained beyond its first year, although the organisers hope to bring the programme back in the near future.
The good news is that the Primetime programme sponsors, is expecting to build in a Science Fair component to the programme, so as to make it a more science and mathematics festival which would then become even bigger and more interesting for the students to participate in it. It is believed that this will encourage students to put what they learn in the classroom to practice and, therefore, help them to become innovative.
PAST WINNERS OF THE NSMQ
Since the programme began in 1993, the past winners have been, Prempeh College, !994, Presbyterian Boys Senior High School, 1995, Prempeh College, 1996, Opoku Ware, 1997, Achimota School, 1998, Mfantsipim , 1999, St Peters Senior Hugh School, Nkwatia, 2,000, Pope John Senior High School, 2001, Opoku Ware , 2002, Presbyterian Boys, Legon, 2003, Achimota’s Senior High School, 2004, St Peters, Nkwatia, 2005, Presbyterian Boys, Legon, 2006, St Augustine’s College, 2007, Presbyterian Boys, Legon, 2008, Presbyterian Boys, Legon 2009.
The programme went on a recess for two years, 2010, 2011, and upon resumption in 2012, Ghana Secondary Technical School, Takoradi, emerged winners. In 2013, St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School won, then Mfantsipim, 2014, Prempeh College, 2015, Adisadel College, 2016, Prempeh College, 2017, St Peter’s Senior High School, Nkwatia, 2018, St Augustine’s College, 2019, Presbyterian Boys, 2020 and Prempeh College, 2021 in that order.
Currently Presbyterian Secondary School,Legon tops the table with six wins, followed by Prempeh College with five wins. It is significant to note that this year’s competition was very keen, especially the finals in which the debutant and defending champion, Presbyterian Secondary School, Legon, came face to face with Prempeh College, the four times winners and Keta Senior High Technical School, who had shown remarkable strides from the beginning. In the final analysis, Prempeh College showed their class by emerging winners of this year’s competition. I must say that Keta Senior High Technical School deserves commendation especially, the female member of the team, Francisca Lamini, who exhibited finesse and quality in the whole competition. All the participating schools must be commended for good work done.
SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO THE INITIATORS OF NSMQ
In 2017, this programme was adjudged the TV programme of the year during the CIMG Award ceremony. Lest I forget, it is important to pay special tribute to the initiators of this popular and interesting educative programme for their foresight and fortitude. Although some of them are dead and gone, their spirit and souls continue to remain supreme and by now they will be turning in their graves to see that the baby they brought forth had been nurtured to grow into adulthood as this programme continues to excel across the entire country. Other professors who inherited them as quiz masters and are still active deserve a lot of praises for making the programme what it is today.
The programme sponsors as well as the television stations that continue to beam or televise the competition across the country, also deserve a lot of commendation.
THE ENTIRE BENEFITS OF THE NSMQ TO THE YOUTH
The youth of today, are often glued to television and mobile phones watching all kinds of dirty and obscene programmes as well as pornographic materials with no benefit to themselves but rather to facilitate their destruction. It is a fact that they need more of such educative programmes on our television screens for a good cause. I will use my column to appeal for more sponsorship of such educative programmes on our screens from corporate entities, well-meaning establishments and philanthropic organisations and individuals to shape the lives of our teeming youth and make them more responsible and productive.
The youth are the country’s future asset and they must be supported to grow to take up the mantle of leadership of our country. This article cannot end properly without warning those who have issued death threats against the quiz mistress, Dr. Elsie Kauffman, to be careful with their wicked plans since she did her work with perfection.
Contact email/WhatsApp of author:
0277753946/0248933366
BY CHARLES NEEQUAYE
There is a scripture that is found in Matthew 6:22 which says that the lamp of the body is the eye and therefore the eye must see well to enable the body to get to its destination.
What most people do not know is that behind the scenes, there is a strong interaction between the eyes and the brain before a picture becomes clear. The state of mind therefore is crucial to the eye seeing clearly to enable the body to process accurately the information the eyes are feeding it for proper identification of what the eyes see.
This is similar to how a person behaves i.e. what informs the decisions that forms in the mind that results in the actions that a person performs. The actions of a person does not therefore just happen but is as a result of things that went on in the mind, which in most cases resulted from information passed on to it by the eyes either consciously or unconsciously.
There are so many issues that affect our society which makes one wonder, whether the people who displayed such acts were created by someone or something other than God.
How can a person see a beach created by God with beautiful beaches and fresh air blowing all around, decides to defecate at such places, and therefore desecrate the environment? lt is simply mind boggling?
When other people in other countries who dwell on the coast are using their beaches for tourist attraction purposes as a means of livelihood and also to promote environmental health, some people living around our beaches, have turned them into rubbish dumping sites and toilets.
It is a very sad situation and the earlier we did something about it the better. It is a national emergency that must engage the attention, first of the government and then the citizenry, where religious bodies and NGOs must play a critical role.
The things we focus on in this country, needs to be addressed. Our minds which processes the info the eyes send to the brain, must be disciplined. There are certain behaviours that a disciplined mind can ignore even when the eye has provided info to the brain. One of the things a disciplined mind does, is the avoidance of a second look, which is critical for every person who wants to avoid adultery or fornication.
Once a person is not blind, he will see things. The boobs, the ‘shankus’, the coca cola shapes, the light complexioned, the dark complexioned etc. the eyes will definitely see and report same to the brain. What the brain or the mind decides to do or instructs the eye to do is the issue.
It can decide to instruct the eye to take a second look and let the mind drool over it or say ignore it and that will be the end.
If the mind becomes trained to focus on environmental issues like clean environment, the eyes will automatically be reporting on insanitary conditions to the brain as and when it sees them. The mind will pay attention to such data and begin to process them and to identify solutions to deal with the reported insanitary conditions.
There is the need to encourage citizens to train the mind to focus on the right thing so that in tandem with the eyes, focus will be maintained. When the mind is so trained, it communicates with the eye to also focus on hood things that helps in both are spiritual life and our secular lives, for indeed the eyes are the lamp of the body. God bless.
THE relationship between New Times Corporation (NTC) and African Concrete Productions (ACP) is based entirely on matters of the stomach. Each depends on the other in a dietary symbiosis, reinforced by the close proximity of each other
At lunchtime, you’d see a particular set of Times workers marching regimentally to ACP to face the wall. You’d think they are soldiers. It has long been declared that the company manufactures the best kokonte in the Greater Accra Region. ACP is, therefore, a culinary haven for those NTC kokonte fans, both male and female.
As the NTC kokonte warriors cross the border to ACP, you’d see some ACP banku fanatics dancing joyously to NTC. They are lucky folks because they do not have to obtain visa to enter into ‘Times’ to attack the balls of banku with precision and accuracy. They also claim that the lightsoup at ‘Times’ is arguably the best in West Africa.
So the relationship between the two entities was quite cordial and based practically on stomach palaver, until ACP workers staged an industrial revolution, whereupon the managing director, accountant and estate manager were allegedly stripped naked and locked up in a room. An insurgency had began in earnest.
An ACP worker came to ‘Times’, this time not to eat banku and okro. He had come to inform newsmen that juicy stuff awaited them at ACP. It could make a front page lead story.
A camerawoman and a female reporter were accordingly dispatched to go and bring back news, juicy news as juicy as kokonte and groundnut soup.
I was driving to work when I espied the familiar camerawoman clicking away outside the ACP premises. I didn’t see any ‘Times’ reporter but angry workers who were on the verge of getting violent. I slowed down and the driver behind blew his horn at me like a lunatic. I drove on.
Later, I heard the reporter and camerawoman were harassed and brutalised. The report came,. “The camerawoman, Mrs Salome Adonu-Agbottah and reporter Mrs Doreen Allotey, in an attempt to retrieve the camera which the workers had seized from them were severely beaten. They were manhandled and almost pushed into a big gutter opposite the company’s premises.
BRUISES
“….The camerawoman had bruises on her body, her hand bag was destroyed and the money in it stolen. Mrs Allotey’s watch was also snatched and her feet stamped on.”
Luckily, it was not her nose that was trampled upon. She has a beautiful nose.
The bad news was received with extreme sorrow. If the victims had been men, it would not have seemed too bad. But to brutalise women is just unacceptable. The New Times Corporation has not stopped mourning the incident which has been condemned in many circles.
Some people keep asking me why Times sent females to cover a potentially violent demonstration. I tell them they might as well ask why CNN’s amazon, Christina Amanpour, is assigned to cover the carnage in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda. She is always on the frontline in jeans and jacket.
Journalism is a potentially hazardous profession, and once you accept to study and practise the trade, you might as well bone up to face any assignment as long as your superiors feel you are capable of handling it or you have demonstrated the capacity to handle it. Both males and females can be assigned anywhere, anytime just like policemen and women are assigned.
The only difference between cops and pressmen is that the latter are armed only with a pen and the former with a gun. The question is should newsmen also arm themselves so that in any event of an assault they would not be found wanting in self-defence? They can’t adequately defend themselves with a pen and a jotter. A pen cannot even disfigure an opponent’s upper lip.
Photo-journalists have particularly suffered violence. Spectator ace-cameraman Vincent Dzatse was severely assaulted by AMA men when he attempted to take pictures of their indiscretions.
Sports cameraman, P. K. Arthur has been beaten more than once at the sports stadium when riots errupted and he wanted to capture it on his lenses.
Some sports journalists have been banned from entering the Accra Sports Stadium by supporters because in their comments, they didn’t write “sense”. Some supporters once nearly lynched Christian Abbew, Spectator Sports Editor, near a courtroom. He was stoned like the biblical Stephen. He had gone to defend a contempt charge.
I think it is time journalists met and discussed how best to defend themselves in any event of an attack by individuals or mobs. In the pursuance of their duty, they must be free from harassment and assault.
Some journalists go to work and return home with a black-eye or a double fore-head. It is just not right. Something has to be done about it. I think journalists should be armed. But first we must be trained in the use of firearms so that our warning shot do not hit below the belt. What about training in Kung Fu?
This article was first published on Saturday, October 17, 1998.
