A Supreme Court Judge, Justice Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, has said that challenges encountered by girls' schools in preparing for the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) affect their success in the competition.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ Mamavi Owusu-Aboagye, she explained that winning the NSMQ is about practice and preparation which girls' schools may have difficulty executing, because of parents' attachment to their daughters.

She said that “when I hear the kind of preparation and practice the boys' schools put their contestants through, then I know it will be a challenge for the young women because parents tend to want their daughters to come home during vacation. Most of the contestants stay on in school and parents don’t like that with their daughters.”

Using herself as an example, Prof Mensa-Bonsu said that as a young girl her parents first ask about her whereabouts when they came home just as many parents do in the case of their daughters.

“So I don’t think they would have agreed that I should just stay on in school preparing for a contest two years ahead as the boys do,” she noted.

Prof Mensa-Bonsu added that “the young ladies are every bit as intelligent and capable as the boys but with everything you need practice and they just don’t have the time.” 

This comes after people raised concerns following the elimination of all the girls' schools in the 2022 NSMQ contest.

Prof Mensa-Bonsu’s alma mater, Wesley Girls High School, was for the first time in eight years unseeded and will have to start the contest from the regional qualifiers.

They are also the only girls' school to make it to the finals. They made their first appearance at the finals in 1999 against Mfantsipim but the latter won.