Pempeh College to take NSMQ protest to int’l institutions & experts; mull legal action too

Five-time champions of the National Science & Maths Quiz (NSMQ) at Prempeh College have served notice of referring their protest to international institutions and experts to have them reinstated in this year’s competition.

The Ashanti Region school, which came in second in last year’s final, also wants an independent consultant to be engaged to bring finality to their grievance after exiting the semi-final on Thursday, October 19.

“We are resolute in our minds that our answer is correct, and we will take all available steps and means, including legal, if necessary, to ensure that Prempeh College and its consultants are given a fair hearing,” a reply to Primetime Productions, organizers of the annual competition, said.

The letter, written by Prempeh College’s NSMQ Coordinator, P.B. Damoah, on Tuesday, October 24, was in reply to the response given by the organizers when the school protested their exit from the competition.

Amanfoɔ, as students of the all-boys school are popularly called, exited the 2023 edition after amassing 36 points, losing the Grand Finale slot to city rivals Opoku Ware School by just 2 points. Pope John’s Boys’ Senior High and Seminary, with 36 points, were also in that second semi-final contest.

A correct answer to a riddle in Round 5 of their semi-final contest—Principle of Linear Superposition—would have seen Prempeh make a third consecutive final.

However, the answer given by one of the contestants, the Principle of Superposition, was ruled out by the Quiz Mistress, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann. Not even a protest would accept the answer.

According to Prempeh College’s reply, the consultant cannot be consulted to pass judgement in a matter he is complicit in.

“We are available to make further presentations if needed anytime before the final competition to set the records straight.

“We believe that Primetime cannot rely on the same physics consultant who has relied on unconfirmed and unconventional concepts, which is unrelated to the question the competition asked to justify the rejection of the correct answer our contestant gave.

“Given that we may have reached an impasse, we request that an independent consultant or body be engaged to bring finality to this matter since one cannot be a judge in his own matter.”

Organisers’ response

This comes after Primetime Limited responded to a petition filed by Prempeh College following their narrow exit.

The school had raised issues of unfairness as well.

The NSMQ organizers responded thus: “While we greatly appreciate Prempeh College’s keen interest and passion for the NSMQ, we draw the line at insinuations of bias and attempts to favour some schools. We place a premium on fairness for all participating schools, which is why we allow protests from schools to ensure that there is fairness in the adjudication of contests. Where a school’s protest is found to have merit, the error is rectified and the appropriate marks are awarded to them. Indeed, we are known to pause contests so as to resolve a protest that has been made by a school. In this instance, the Prempeh team’s protest was reviewed by the physics consultant, who then explained the concepts to the team, which the team accepted. Consequently, this turnaround and insinuation that a deliberate injustice has been carried out against Prempeh College is rather surprising.

“The ability to protest a question, answer, or mode of adjudication is not a new one, and we would like Prempeh College to use the procedure described in the NSMQ Rules to address their grievances rather than to resort to a smear campaign on social media. Sullying the reputation of the competition is not an action one takes when one is truly gracious in defeat; disagreeing, but accepting the outcome in good faith, is graciousness in defeat.

“We would like to reiterate that Primetime has no interest whatsoever in which school wins or loses a contest or, ultimately, the championship trophy. We place a very high premium on the integrity of the program and so go to great lengths—too numerous to recount here—to protect it.

“It would be very unfortunate for anyone to dismiss the great effort and investment of time and money that the contestants and trainers put into preparing their teams to excel at this competition by insinuating that Primetime is biased towards some schools and manipulates contests in their favour. A five-time champion knows, from experience, the challenges of preparing for and triumphing over all other participants present to the team and how much hard work goes on behind the scenes and on stage to produce excellent results at each edition of the NSMQ.”