GBC launches third National Energy Quiz

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), on Wednesday launched the third National Energy Quiz to provide a platform for the exchange and promotion of culture and indigenous knowledge on energy among the youth.

The quiz, to be produced by Eastern Star Awards, a media content creating company based in the Eastern region, is targeted at Senior High Schools, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions across the country.

The competition, also known as “Nana Sir Ofori Atta National Energy Quiz”, will test students who participate on topics related to petroleum, power, nuclear and culture in the local parlance.

The quiz will be aired on Ghana Television (GTV) with Mr Dan Afari Yeboah, as the Quiz Master, from October to December 2020, on the theme: “Achieving SDG 7 and 13 – Think Energy, Act Global, and Start Local”.

Professor Amin Alhassan, Director General of GBC, who launched the quiz in Accra, said the launch of the competition followed months of collaborative work between the Corporation and the Eastern Star Awards, after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions.

He said the quiz was a buildup on GTVs energy news initiative, saying, “We hold the conviction that the quiz is devoted to the social, economic, industrial, and policy dimensions of energy production, consumption and conservation and will help mainstream knowledge on energy among the youth.”

Prof. Alhassan said the contest was targeted at SHS students deliberately, because, career opportunities in the energy sector was limitless.

Mrs Patty Assan, National Director, in charge of Basic and Secondary Schools, Ghana Education Service (GES), said most of the causes and challenges of energy usage as captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were behaviour related, and that the best way to combat them was through attitudinal change among the youth.

“It is said that the easiest way to straighten a tree is while it is still young, we are elated to know that the culture of the use of clean energy and the action to combat climate change will be inculcated into the younger generation,” she said.

Mrs Assan said the energy sector offered a lot of opportunities, hence, an early orientation towards its study would provide hope for the job-seeking youth after school.

“The nation spends huge resources employing foreigners to undertake vocational jobs in our oil and gas industry, with the appropriate knowledge in the industry, our youth can take advantage of it and get employed with good returns,” she said.

The National Director was positive that the quiz would serve as a tool to increase discussions in Ghana’s energy sector and urged SHSs to participate in the competition.

Mr. Humphrey Tetteh, Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Star Awards, said the National Energy Quiz started with five schools in the New Juaben Municipal Assembly in 2018 with the aim of honouring Nana Sir Ofori Atta, a traditional ruler in the Eastern for ably combining traditional wisdom with western education in leadership.

He said last year’s edition covered 96 schools across the Eastern region, with an average of 1,000 students per school and impacted the lives of over 9600 students who followed the programme on television and their social media platforms.