It was an intense battle of creativity and a showcase of semantic prowess as KNUST SHS, Prempeh College, Yaa Asantewaa Girls and Osei Tutu SHS clashed for the coveted title as the best school in poetry for the Ashanti region.

After weeks of riveting showdowns among seventeen schools in the region, four emerged to slug it out at the final round of the maiden ACE Spoken Word competition in Kumasi.

The competition, organised by the American Corner Kumasi of the US Embassy and ACE Consult, aimed to provide students with a platform to showcase their public speaking and artistic poetry skills and recitals.

The opening of the contest saw the four schools prepare and act out poems written about Ghana’s upcoming elections, highlighting the essence of peacebuilding and cohesion before and after the polls.

The schools charged both the citizenry and the political parties to uphold the country’s principles of transparency, tolerance and the sense of nationalism for a peaceful election.

At the end of the first round, KNUST SHS led the pack, with the other schools following closely behind.

There was a near overturn in favor of the boys from the Greenland, Prempeh College, as they managed to garner more points ahead of the contenders in the second round by correctly answering general knowledge questions.

The team was taken aback in the final lap, as KNUST’s on-the-spot poetry scribbles and recitals threw the panel of judges and the audience into a frenzy.

KNUST SHS’s poetic skills surpassed those of their contenders and saw them clinching the coveted title and prize of the 2024 edition of the competition.

At the end of the contest, Prempeh College came second, while Osei Tutu SHS and Yaa Asantewaa Girls placed third and fourth, respectively.

The Executive Director of American Corner Kumasi and ACE Consult, Marilyn Owusu, was optimistic about the potential of the students to become the country’s next generation of thinkers and authors.

“We have indeed strong, creative student who we hope in future we will feel proud associated to them. For all that they demonstrated, I can tell they will excel in the field and in life,” she said.

The participants were confident about the benefits gained from the competition, indicating that their skills had been honed.