The Sandema Preparatory Junior High School (JHS) in the Builsa North Municipality of the Upper East Region has won a quiz competition organised by the Municipal Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
The school competed with the Success International JHS in a Constitution Quiz Competition intended to inculcate in the pupils the habit of reading the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
Of all the three rounds of the contest, the Sandema Preparatory JHS constantly led their counterpart, the Success International JHS, and finally had 94 points, with the Success International JHS scoring 67 points.
Mr Jeffrey Adda, the Municipal Director of the NCCE in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sandema, after the quiz, emphasized the need for pupils to be taught the 1992 Constitution of Ghana at the basic level so that they would appreciate their civic duties as they grow.
He said the Constitution was the supreme law of Ghana, insisting that it was critical for pupils to be abreast with the basic fundamental laws of the country as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
“We targeted the JHSs to catch them young to develop an interest in knowing the tenets, objectives and principles of the Constitution. This will help them to also know their rights and responsibilities as citizens,” Mr Adda said.
He said it was the second quiz competition organised by the NCCE in the Municipality, and indicated that if the pupils knew their responsibilities, they would take good care of school property, especially furniture, and reduce the burden on government in the provision of furniture to schools.
He said the quiz competition was organised with their own resources and initiative as staff of the Commission, “I spoke to my staff and we brought our own resources together to organise this quiz competition to help the pupils to learn and develop the interest in the Constitution.
“We hope to upscale it to the rest of the schools in the Municipality if we get sponsors, and finally bring all winners across the various schools to a bigger platform for them to compete, and further scale it up to the level of inter-district contest,” he said.
Mr Adda indicated that he was impressed with the performance of the schools, “Critical questions about certain articles in the Constitution were asked and they were able to answer, they know the number of chapters in the Constitution and which chapter to find the NCCE.
“It shows that they are learning, and it cannot end there, as a Commission we need to engage them the more to be able to learn and appreciate the Constitution more,” the NCCE Municipal Director said.
Mr Daniel Agbanga, a teacher at the Sandema Preparatory JHS and the NCCE Patron in the school, congratulated his pupils for their performance in the competition, and urged pupils of the Success International JHS not to lose hope but work hard to win next time.
His counterpart in the Success International JHS, Ms Louisa Anpan, also encouraged her pupils not to be discouraged, saying “We have learnt a lot and will prepare adequately for the competition next time.”
The three pupils who competed and won the quiz for their school are Master Gatine Afiako, Ms Elsie Achaw both in JHS three, and Ms Hanifatu Yahaya, a form one pupil.
They each received pens, exercise books, pocket size copies of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, and a certificate of honour for their school, while participants from the
Success International JHS also received consolation prizes.
GNA
