Science and Maths quiz introduced for Catholic basic schools

The Cocktail Media, a media organisation that focuses on youth development, in collaboration with the National Catholic Secretariat Education Directorate, has introduced a new national Science and Maths quiz for Catholic basic schools (junior high schools) in Ghana.

Known as the Brain Battle TV Quiz, the competition seeks to lay a solid foundation and build students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The competition, with the tag line: “It's mental not muscles”, will have three rounds which will feature questions from Integrated Science, Mathematics and Practical Science.

In all, 120 selected Catholic basic schools from 10 regions (12 from each region) have been shortlisted to partake in the quiz.

The schools will battle it out at the regional level after which the winners from the regions will meet in Accra to compete for the ultimate prize at the national level.

Launch

At the launch of the quiz in Accra last Friday, the General Manageress of Catholic schools, Mrs Doris Ashun, was hopeful that it would help produce good students from Catholic basic schools in Ghana to go to second-cycle institutions.

She noted that it was very important to train young people at a tender age in Science and Mathematics, because opportunities at the various job sectors would require STEM education by 2020.

Mrs Ashun was, however, quick to encourage parents and teachers to groom more girls in the competition to give them a more fulfilled future.

"The belief that men study and work at industrialised institutions while women do other chores at home should be a thing of the past," she asserted.

She further advised the students to learn hard, prepare adequately and expel all fears in order to succeed in the competition and beyond.

Advancement

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra and the Episcopal Bishop in Charge of Education, Archbishop John Boneventure Kwofie, observed that the time had come for the country to take STEM seriously, stressing: “As this country continues to advance, the need for science has become apparent and we need to have many people in the area of science and technology.”

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Cocktail Media, Mr Samuel Owusu Boateng, was hopeful that the competition would create opportunities for the competitors to progress to the university to read Science and advance their careers in that field to become engineers, doctors, among others.