The third edition of the Nana Sir Ofori Atta National Energy Quiz targeted at Senior High Schools, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions across the country has been launched.
The quiz, produced by Eastern Star Awards, a media content creating company based in the Eastern region, is aimed at providing a platform for the exchange and promotion of culture and indigenous knowledge on energy among the youth.
The competition to be moderated by Quiz master, Dan Afari Yeboah, will test students who participate on topics related to petroleum, power, nuclear and culture in the local parlance.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) the main media partners of the Quiz will air the programme from October to December 2020, on the theme: “Achieving SDG 7 and 13 – Think Energy, Act Global, and Start Local”.
Director General of GBC, Professor Amin Alhassan, said the launch of the competition followed months of collaborative work between GBC and the Eastern Star Awards, after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organizations.
He said the quiz was a buildup to 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.
National Director, in charge of Basic and Secondary Schools, Ghana Education Service (GES), Patty 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.
Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Star Awards, Humphrey Tetteh, 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.
By Jamila Akweey Okertchiri