KNUST Senior High School, Opoku Ware Senior High School and host school, Yaa Asantewaa Senior High School, have emerged winners of the three contests held in the Ashanti Region at the 7th edition of the National Public Speaking Competition (NPSC).

The three schools have progressed to the national stage after the preliminary stage in the Ashanti Region and say they are prepared to give their best and bring the trophy to the Ashanti Region.

The 2026 competition, also known as the Speaking/Speech Festival, is themed “Stolen Futures: Drug and Substance Abuse Among Adolescent” and seeks to encourage young people to use public speaking to address societal challenges and offer alternative solutions.

The Ashanti Regional contest was held at Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ Senior High School, with 12 schools competing in three contests.

Contest One featured KNUST SHS, T.I. Amass SHS, Prempeh College and Kumasi Anglican SHS, while Contest Two comprised Jachie Pramso SHS, Serwaa Nyarko SHS, Opoku Ware SHS and Kumasi Girls SHS.

Contest Three featured Osei Tutu SHS, Kumasi High SHS, Yaa Asantewaa SHS and St. Louis SHS.

Winners of the first contest, KNUST SHS representatives Ernestina Owusu and Augustina Sekyere, described the experience as educational and expressed confidence ahead of the next stage.

“The experience from today was very educative, it wasn’t just a competition. For the next stage, I believe that when we give out our best we can win the ultimate just like we won today,” stressed Ernestina.

Opoku Ware SHS representatives Paul Gyamfi and Prince Adjei, who won the second contest, said although they were nervous because it was their first time participating in the competition, they were prepared for the next stage.

“We’re fully prepared, whenever they asks us for any other contest, we’re prepared for we believe that preparation is the key to everything and practice makes perfect because that’s what OWASS is known for,” said Prince.

For host school Yaa Asantewaa Girls SHS, Akosua Addo and Esther Sarfo said the pressure of the contest was evident but their preparation helped them overcome it.

“It’s a natural feeling where you have your palm sweating, your head is aching and you’re asking yourself with the idea of able to do it and we were able to. We’re very prepared, if we’re able to win this, then the next stage we’re going to strive to be able to win it like we did for this win,” Esther asserted.

Meanwhile, Regional Cultural Coordinator and also organizer of the event, Samuel Atta, has appealed to the government to make a dedicated budgetary allocation to the competition to improve its organisation and support participating students.

“So the government should send funds and include budgetary allocation for this program so that we can also organize it well. The children came here since morning, we should’ve given them some food but the budgetary allocation is small so we want the government to give a very lucrative budgetary allocation so that we can organize it well,” Samuel Atta said.

He described the competition as an important educational and solution-oriented initiative for young people, despite being a relatively new programme in the country.

“It’s a very nice program because it is preparing the children for the future. Public speaking is a way of training the children to know how to attack issues of concern. The youths have turned into hooligans. They attack authorities but looking at this contest, you can see they’re attacking issues and giving alternative solutions,” he noted.

Organised by DeeDee Global in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and under the patronage of the Speaker of Parliament, the annual competition is designed to promote patriotism, creativity and national development among the youth.

The NPSC is also designed to develop students’ critical thinking, verbal and non-verbal communication skills, confidence in addressing public audiences and leadership abilities.