Ghana Senior High School, Tamale has booked a ticket for the one-eighth stage of the national championship after it secured a total of 49 points.

The team handled their contenders from Damongo SHS and Bunkpurugu SHS to emerge victors of the first preliminary contest in the Northern zone on Friday.

It was a nail-biting competition for the Damongo and Bunkpurugu boys who were eventually left in a distance with only 10 points and 11 points, respectively.

The schools performed quite poorly in the fourth round which featured questions that demanded 'true' or 'false' responses from the contestants.

Round three of the contest was tough for Damongo and Bunkpurugu as they toiled to record only four points and one point. Ghana SHS garnered seven points but that could not get the Prudential Life Insurance NSMQ Star prize as they could not meet the perfect score of 10 points respectively.

From the Northern zone, Ghana SHS joins St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, Bolgatanga SHS, and Tamale Islamic Science SHS which have already qualified for the next level of the competition.

From the one-eighth stage, the national competition will be held in Kumasi for the first time.