27/08/2026
THE ST. AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE, ANLO SHS & KUMASI HIGH NSMQ CONTEST: WHAT ACTUALLY TRANSPIRED
Just to explain what transpired during the 1/8th-stage contest of the NSMQ between St. Augustine’s College, Kumasi High School, and Anlo SHS.
The first point of contention occurred in Round One, Question 5 (Biology), which was St. Augustine’s College’s major question. The quiz mistress asked the contestants to mention the protective covering of the brain.
The St. Augustine’s contestant answered “dura mater.” However, the quiz mistress said she was not accepting that answer and awarded the question to Anlo SHS as a bonus. Anlo answered “meninges,” and the quiz mistress awarded them one mark.
After the round ended, St. Augustine’s College submitted a petition, arguing that dura mater is one of the layers of the meninges and, therefore, their answer should have been accepted and they should have been awarded the three marks.
The quiz mistress overruled the petition and explained that the protective covering of the brain consists of three layers: dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater. These three layers collectively are called the meninges.
According to her explanation, the question required the contestants to mention the covering layer of the brain, and the St. Augustine’s contestant had mentioned only one of the three layers. In her own terms, dura mater was therefore a subset of meninges, rather than the complete answer expected.
The contest proceeded to Round Two and subsequently Round Three. After Round Three, St. Augustine’s College submitted another petition, again challenging the same question from Round One and insisting that they should be awarded the point.
One of the production team members went out to make a phone call and subsequently returned to the auditorium to hand over the phone call to the quiz mistress on stage. The quiz mistress was on that phone call for between 5-10 minutes. After the call she now announced that there another issue at hand and that St. Augustines college was still protesting that they got the answer correctly and that they should be awarded the marks and so she was awarding them a partial score of two points on the grounds of generosity and magnanimity.
Anlo SHS immediately submitted a petition, arguing that, according to the rules of the game, a petition challenging a question should be raised within the round in which the question occurred. In this case, St. Augustine’s had already raised the issue during Round One, which was overruled, but returned to challenge the same question again after Round Three.
Anlo SHS further argued that, since the quiz mistress was being generous and magnanimous with the award of marks, Anlo SHS should also be awarded a point to an answer they gave in the “Problem of the Day” which the quiz mistress said was correct without units and so she wouldn’t award any marks for it.
The quiz mistress dismissed Anlo SHS’s petition.
Note that, the consultant was neither informed by prime time production nor the quiz mistress that ANLO SHS gave the expected answer (MENINGES).
We know this because the production called the consultant put him on loud speaker after ANLO SHS protested and the consultant said he was expecting meninges as the answer but since the schools could not give and St. Augustine’s gave Dura mater they should be awarded one mark. This was on loud speaker and can be verified from the joynews livestream, YET the quiz mistress rather decided to award two marks instead of the one mark suggested by the consultant.
According to the consultant, since St. Augustine’s had mentioned one of the layers, they should be awarded one mark, although the expected answer was “meninges.”
The contest proceeded to Round Four.
After Round Four, Anlo SHS subsequently submitted a petition, arguing that, according to the rules of the game, a petition challenging a question should be raised within the round in which the question occurred. In this case, St. Augustine’s had already raised the issue during Round One, which was overruled, but returned to challenge the same question again after Round Three.
Anlo further argued that the Biology consultant had been very clear that the expected answer was “meninges,” which they had provided. Therefore, the argument that St. Augustine’s should receive a mark simply because they mentioned one of the layers of the meninges did not, in their view, hold.
Anlo also argued that if the question had not been awarded as a bonus and they had not already answered “meninges” and received the mark, there could have been room for reconsideration. However, once Anlo had answered the bonus question correctly and had been awarded the one mark, that mark could not subsequently be deducted from Anlo and transferred to St. Augustine’s.
The situation eventually resulted in confusion and controversy, and the contest was put on hold. The quiz mistress, together with a man who had said “Ayekoo” during the 1/8th-stage balloting when Mfantsipim was drawn against Wesley Girls’ High School, came to the conclusion that the contest should proceed to Round Five.
Anlo SHS, however, insisted that they would not allow the contest to proceed until their petition was given a second look. Despite this, the quiz mistress began reading the first clue of Round Five.
At this point, Anlo SHS was joined by Kumasi High School, with both schools demanding that Anlo’s petition be reconsidered before the contest continued.
The teachers of Anlo SHS and Kumasi High School subsequently instructed their contestants to stage a walkout. The contestants from both schools complied with the directive from their teachers and walked off the stage.
After approximately one to two hours, the quiz mistress eventually declared St. Augustine’s College the winner of the contest, based on the scores at the end of Round Four, without proceeding to Round Five, on the grounds that both Anlo SHS and Kumasi High School had staged a walkout.
SCORES AT THE END OF ROUND FOUR
ST. AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE — 39
ANLO SHS — 34
KUMASI HIGH SCHOOL — 21
NB: One point was deducted from Anlo SHS and added to St. Augustine’s College after St. Augustine’s petition was upheld.
CHECK THHE EVIDENCE HERE YOURSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19BHgNzLmx/?mibextid=wwXIfr
57 minutes: The question was given to St. Augustine’s College, and after their answer was rejected, the question was given to Anlo SHS as a bonus, which they answered.
1:13:00: The quiz mistress addressed St. Augustine’s College’s petition concerning the question.
2:25:00: The Biology consultant gave his verdict on the matter.
If you watch the broadcast at these timestamps, the events and explanations speak for themselves and provide a clear timeline of how the issue unfolded.
In my view, Anlo SHS was cheated in broad daylight.
