The University of Cape Coast has beaten the University of Ghana, Evangelical Presbyterian University College and Accra Technical University to qualify to the final competition of the 2019/2020 Commonwealth Inter-Universities Debate and Quiz Competition, currently taking place in Kumasi.
The semi-final round of the competition is taking place at the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education, Winneba from the 27th January to 30th January, 2020. The Competition involves two phases, a quiz competition and a debate competition in which participating universities from both the Southern and Northern Zones are supposed to separately contest and win each phase for the final competition.
The quiz competition which took place earlier yesterday, Tuesday, January 28 was participated by schools from the Southern Zone, including the University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, Evangelical Presbyterian University College, University of Profession Studies, Accra, Central University and Accra Technical University. The quiz competition involved participants being quizzed on three thematic areas including, the history of parliament, know your members of parliament and their constituencies, and the parliamentary word formation stages.
Out of the six participating schools, three schools were to be selected for the final competition. At the end of the quiz competition, Central University College and the University of Professional Studies, Accra qualified alongside the University of Cape Coast with total marks of 141, 104 and 94 respectively, into the final rounds which will take place in Accra on the 9th March, 2020. The Evangelical Presbyterian University College-Ho, Accra Technical University and the University of Ghana exited the competition with total points of 88, 72, and 57 respectively.
However, the second stage of the competition involves a debate competition. Central University College defeated Accra Technical University in their debate contest eliminating Accra Technical University from the debate competitions as well. The University of Cape Coast and the University of Professional Studies, Accra, who have both qualified their quiz teams for the final competitions are set to debate against each other today, January, 29 for a place for their debate teams for the final competition.
The next round of the semi-finals consists of schools from the Northern Zone which include, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University for Development Studies, Catholic University College, Ghana (CUCG), Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG) -Agogo, Kumasi Technical University and, Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG) -Abetifi, who will be competing from Thursday, 30th January to Friday, 31st January, 2020. Three schools from the Northern Zone will be qualifying to join the three already qualified school for the finals in Accra.
The organization of this annual Inter-Universities Debate and Quiz Competition is done so as to deepen the ideals of democracy and parliamentary knowledge amongst student parliamentarians across the nation. The theme for this year’s project is titled “Strengthening Capacity of Young Parliamentarians as Catalyst of Youth Political Empowerment” and is spearheaded by The Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Ghana in collaboration with the Public Affair Directorate of the Parliament of Ghana. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Ghana is the nation’s branch of the Westminster Foundations for Democracy, UK. The final competition will be held in Accra in commemoration of the 2020 Commonwealth Day Celebration.
