Organisers of the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ), Primetime Limited, have reacted to claims of rigging the semifinal stage contest, which featured Opoku Ware School, Pope John SHS and Prempeh College.
The contest held on October 19 ended in favour of Opoku Ware School, who progressed to the final stage of the competition.
Following the contest, coordinators of Prempeh College protested the outcome of the competition. They disputed the answer to a riddle in the fifth round of the competition and called for a review and acceptance of their contestant’s answer, as well as the overturn of the results of the contest in favour of Prempeh College.
The protest from Prempeh College concerns a riddle for which clues were given that point to the linear superposition principle. In interactions with the complainants on their protest, no reference to exponential superposition was made.
Instead, a nonlinear superposition relevant to intensity was given as a counterexample, which seemed to satisfy the protesters. Indeed, there are situations where electric fields participate in nonlinear processes in which combining two fields produces a field that does not equal the sum of the fields, the associated phenomena constituting a vibrant branch of Physics.
The clues in the riddle in question were intended to prompt the specific response "(Principle of) Linear Superposition" and enough were given. The claim that no clue restricts the answer to linear superposition is not supported by clues 4 and 5.
Specifically, the examples given in the last clue, namely, electric field and scalar potential calculations as practiced by SHS students, point directly to linear superposition.
In response to the school’s petition, which claimed that the principle of superposition is the same as the principle of linear superposition, Primetime Limited noted that the Quiz Mistress, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann, exercises discretion on whether an answer provided by a contestant is sufficiently responsive and would have accepted the answer given by the Prempeh College contestants if, in her professional opinion, the target key and the answer given by the contestants were synonymous.
The statement signed by Managing Director of Primetime Limited, Nana Mensa-Bonsu, noted that Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann did not in this case, opting instead to maintain the more precise original key.
“When the complaint came to the attention of the Physics consultant, full consideration was given to all the issues raised and the protesters, after receiving complete attention, were satisfied with the explanation and counterexample that were given by the consultant.
“The Quiz Mistress’s ruling is affirmed. While we greatly appreciate Prempeh College’s keen interest and passion for the NSMQ, we draw the line at insinuations of bias and attempts to favour some schools. We place premium on fairness to all participating schools, which is why we allow protests from schools, to ensure that there is fairness in the adjudication of contests. Where a school’s protest is found to have merit, the error is rectified and the appropriate marks are awarded to them.
“Indeed, we are known to pause contests, so as to resolve a protest that has been made by a school. In this instance, the Prempeh team’s protest was reviewed by the Physics consultant, who then explained the concepts to the team, which the team accepted. Consequently, this turnaround and insinuation that a deliberate injustice has been carried out against Prempeh College is rather surprising,” the statement added.
Primetime Limited also noted that the ability to protest a question, answer, or mode of adjudication is not a new one, thus would like Prempeh College to use the procedure described in the NSMQ Rules to address their grievances, rather than to resort to a smear campaign on social media.
“Sullying the reputation of the competition is not an action one takes when one is truly gracious in defeat; disagreeing, but accepting the outcome in good faith is graciousness in defeat. We would like to reiterate that Primetime has no interest whatsoever, in which school wins, or loses a contest, or, ultimately, the championship trophy.
“We place a very high premium on the integrity of the programme and so go to great lengths, too numerous to recount here, to protect it. It would be very unfortunate for anyone to dismiss the great effort and investment of time and money that the contestants and trainers put into preparing their teams to excel at this competition, by insinuating that Primetime is biased towards some schools and manipulates contests in their favour.
A five-time champion knows, from experience, the challenges preparing for and triumphing over all other participants present to the team and how much hard work goes on behind the scenes and on stage, to produce excellent results at each edition of the NSMQ. We appreciate the exciting and passionate contests you have given us at NSMQ 2023 and wish you the very best in future editions of the National Science and Maths Quiz,” the statement added.
