NSMQ; Too much noise about nothing!!

Television does wonderful things to us. When the NMSQ competition started several years ago, few would have thought that it would grow this big and be an important annual event Ghanaians of all ages and educational standards and inclination cannot get enough of. And many of us do not even care about or understand the Maths or the Science. We are simply captivated by the drama.

The format of the competition means that a school needs just one exceptionally brilliant student to do well in the competition. Winning the competition therefore, is no reflection of how generally good a school is. A school is judged on how the average student does and not by the performance of gifted students who would excel whatever school they went to.

And there are a lot of other things that make a school great rather than just a couple of exceptional Maths and Science students. What is the school’s performance in Sports, Music, the Arts, Business and general upbringing? Is your school training you to simply be an inward-looking exam machine or training you to be an all-round individual who fits into every society. In other words, is your school a St Peters Akwatia, or a St Augustine’s College Cape Coast, if you get what I mean?

So a modicum of modesty, dignity and respect is expected from schools which win this competition. The raucous over-the-board celebrations intermingled with a missing bag here and there, and over-the-top zebra “fur” coats to boot, smack of a distinct lack of class.

While on this issue, would it not be nice if more competitions were organised to give similar opportunities to our Arts brothers? What about a National Debating Competition to give platforms for some of our very eloquent Arts students to display their talent?

If television has been able to promote such a specialist programme that seemed initially on a hiding to nothing into one loved by all Ghanaians, then one wonders what else television could do for other school activities. Is it not time we started showing our Inter Colleges Athletics and football live on TV? If well–promoted, we would succeed in making our school sports as popular as college sports are in the United States and new talent would be more easily identified.

By the way, before I am accused of sour grapes, let me grudgingly say, congratulations to Prempeh College.

Come ooooooon Augusco!!

Lexeve1@icloud.com

www.ghanansemsem.blogspot.com