The National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) is 30 years old and the grand finale of the competition is taking place in the afternoon of Monday, October 30, 2023, with the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, expected to be its guest of honour.
The finalists: Opoku Ware Senior High School (OWASS), Presbyterian Boys Senior High (PRESEC-Legon), and Achimota Senior High School (MOTOWN), will face it off in what is believed to be one of the most exciting finals of the annual competition. But when the competing schools are not in the spotlight, the other most popular components of the NSMQ have been with the quiz mistresses.
In this article, GhanaWeb shares some information on all the mistresses who have graced Ghanaian screens over the last three decades.
Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy, 1993-2000
The late Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy was the first quiz mistress of the NSMQ, serving in that capacity from 1993 through to 2000.
She was also the first Ghanaian woman to become a full professor of natural science.
In her memoir, Rewards: An Autobiography, she said “When in 1993/94, during the planning of a televised quiz programme on science, I was asked to be the Quiz Mistress, I could not say No…
“I was interested in females becoming scientists and this was an opportunity to invite the young ones to become scientists… I thought that this was a most effective way of being a role model.”
In 1995, Prof Marian Addy was named the Marketing Woman of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing for her contribution to promoting the study of science and mathematics among girls through the NSMQ.
Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy, however, died on January 14, 2014, aged 72.
Dr. Eureka Emefa Adomako, 2001-2005
A product of St. Roses Secondary School and a botanist, Dr. Eureka Emefa Adomako was the second mistress to take the baton from Prof Marian Addy.
She is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Plant and Environmental Biology at the University of Ghana-Legon.
Dr. Eureka manned the National Science and Maths Quiz contest for 4 years from 2001 to 2005 after being recommended by the late former mistress, Prof Marian Addy.
She left the scene of the National Science and Maths Quiz when she was awarded a Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in the United Kingdom at the University of Aberdeen in 2005.
She completed her scholarship in November 2008, with a Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Science.
Prof Elsie Effah Kaufmann, 2006-date
The third and current quiz mistress for the NSMQ is Prof Elsie Effah Kaufmann.
She is the Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana-Legon. A position she is occupying as the first Ghanaian woman to obtain such a feat.
Prof Kaufmann has been the longest-serving quiz mistress for the NSMQ since its inception in 1993.
She took over from Dr. Eureka Emefa who recommended Prof Kaufmann when she was bowing out as an NSMQ mistress.
For 17 years (2006-2023), Prof Elsie Kaufmann has excellently handled the National Science and Maths Quiz which has gained enormous attention and support from several Ghanaians.
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Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
