Afua Kobi Ampem Girls’ Senior High School has advanced to the national stage of the 2025 NSMQ after dominating their regional qualifying contest with an impressive 50 points.

The contest, however, ended on a controversial note as Agona SDA Senior High School narrowly missed out on a potential qualification slot amid a disputed riddle ruling.

Agona SDA, who finished second with 38 points, had been pushing to cross the 40-point mark, a threshold that places them in the national and zonal championships.

Their momentum was disrupted during the penultimate round when their response to a mathematics riddle was disallowed by the consultant.

The riddle described mathematical properties commonly associated with an identity matrix. However, Agona SDA insisted the clues also applied to a unit matrix and maintained that their answer was mathematically valid.

They argued that all the properties referenced in the riddle could be used to describe either matrix, and thus the rejection unfairly affected their final score.

Other schools in the contest included Wesley High School, Bekwai, who scored 28 points, and St. Joseph SHTS, who finished with 19 points.

Meanwhile, Agona SDA has indicated it plans to petition Primetime Limited, organisers of the NSMQ, over the controversial decision in hopes of seeking redress.