NSMQ 2021: We were cheated during Grande Finale – Presec contestants lament

The contestants from the Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School Legon (Presec-Legon) in the just-ended 2021 National Science and Maths (NSMQ) have disclosed that they were cheated during the Grande Finale of the contest which was held on Friday, November 26, 2021, at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.

Speaking to UniversNews at the school’s 83rd Speech and Prize Giving Day which took place the following day, the contestants, Prince Appiah Debrah Junior, Henry Mawunya Otumfuo, and Joel Yayra Aboagye explained that their defeat to Prempeh College at the finals was because of the unfairness meted out to them by the organizers and Quiz mistress during the contest.

“The feeling of having to learn and then come only for you to get cheated is really hurtful. During the problem of the Day, the people got time to think about it after the whole thing was over but then they were still given time to write, and I can say that a similar thing happened to us at the Quarterfinals but what happened, they never gave us time to change our mistakes and because of that we got nine out of ten, we ought to have gotten ten if given that time back,” they said.

Reacting to this, Vice-President of the Old Student Association of the school, Odade3 Dr. Eric Asante-Darko called on the organizers of the program to put in measures in order to ensure fairness and equity in subsequent editions.

He also called on Primetime production to put in efforts to restore the integrity of the program.

"We are going to lodge a protest against whatever it is. We know it might not result in a re-run of the event but the protest if it achieves nothing at all will let them sit up for the consultants, Quiz mistress, and the organizers to know that, the need to be reformed to ensure that there is fairness.’’

He further expressed confidence in the students and hoped for Presec to win the competition next year.

“Next year competition we are going to prepare as we always do, we believe in our God because He is the Omnipotent and Omniscient and we believe in our boys and we are going to prepare as usual and go but we are going to very keen.”

The 2021 National Science and Maths Quiz Grande Finale was won by Prempeh College after beating Keta Senior High School, and Presbyterian Boys Secondary School with 53 points.

During the Problem of the Day round of the contest, the contestants from Prempeh College were given 15 extra seconds to complete their work after the duration of the segment had elapsed.

This was because the contestants claim they has a fault with their monitor during the round.

At the end of that round Prempeh College scored 10 with Presec and Ketasco scoring 7.

Prempeh College emerged winners at the end of the contest.

This becomes the fifth win for the school after winning its first trophy in 1994 when the competition first started.