She says the repeated underwhelming performances from the exclusive girl schools in the Primetime annual competition geared at promoting interest in science and maths are worth investigating.

“We need to ask questions,” Prof. Kaufmann told JoyNews’ Maxwell Agbagba.

The lamentations of Prof. Kaufmann who is the Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana follow the failure of all-girl schools to make it past the one-eighth stage in the ongoing 2022 edition of the NSMQ.

“None of them qualified for the quarterfinals,” the veteran quiz mistress bemoaned

Wesley Girls SHS who have been wielding the torch for girl schools in the competition were stopped in their tracks by heavyweights Mawuli School after an underwhelming performance.

Ola Girls SHS from Ho who toed Wey Gey Hey’s footsteps last year, unfortunately, followed them out of the 2022 competition as well after losing to Adventist SHS, Bantama.

Yaa Asantewaa Girls SHS was also evicted at the one-eighth stage by Osei Kyeretwie SHS.

Aburi SHS failed to progress to the knockout stages after a poor run in the preliminary rounds.

Meanwhile, the quarterfinals are over and the semifinals begin on Saturday as the NSMQ looks to find its 2022 champion.

Such research will help track the effectiveness of the competition in a more scientific and systematic way to direct its future organisation.

The Quiz Mistress of the NSMQ, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann, said such an exercise was also important because it would give direction to the STEM programme.

“On a small scale, the producers of the NSMQ have been tracking former contestants and we know that many of them are doing very well outside the country and making a huge impact in their chosen fields, mostly STEM-related.

“We know because they reach out and follow the competition and also help in mentoring young contestants,” Prof. Kaufmann said in an interview with the Daily Graphic ahead of the start of this season’s competition.

She said by and large, the objective of the producers of the competition, which is to encourage the study of science and mathematics, had been achieved, given the heightened interest in the quiz.

“At least, it can be said that science and maths have been demystified in schools and students are always looking forward to the competition,” she added.

Prof. Kaufmann, however, observed that “there are not sufficient females up there to mentor young females, particularly in academia”.

“They are encouraged to come on board in STEM, but somehow along the line they are abandoned and there is very limited support system to keep the females in there; only a few survive the journey in STEM,” she said.

According to her, there were no deliberate interventions and programmes to support females in STEM programmes, saying while inroads had been made in the biological sciences, the same could not be said for physics and engineering.

“There is a significant impact, but that is only felt in the biological sciences where we have many medical doctors, pharmacists, among others, but the same cannot be said for engineering and physics.

“For instance, I tried to get some female professors to help in a research programme in engineering and I was able to find only three, with all of them coming from the UMAT. None of them was from our celebrated Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

“STEM has a leaky pipeline along the way and so when the ladies get in and try to make it up to the top, they fall off along the way,” Prof. Kaufmann said.

She said it was important to look at the base and within the starting points, identify those who had the interest and potential, pick them up and support and motivate them to stay the course,” she said.

This comes a few days after the curtain was drawn on the 2021 edition of the annual prestigious contest.

The photos, which have warmed hearts on social media, spotted a handsome young man and two beautiful daughters with light skin.

One of the photos, which captured a striking resemblance between mother and kids, saw them in Christmas hats.

They beamed with smiles as they wrap their arms around each other’s shoulders.

She was recently named as one of ‘The many faces of physics’ by IOP Publishing, a society-owned scientific publisher that provides impact, recognition and value for the scientific community.

Dr Kaufmann was listed alongside 11 other world-renowned scientists including Gladys West, Katherine G. Johnson, Flossie Wong-Staal and Sylvester James Gates, Jr.

Mostly known for her role as the principal quiz mistress for the NSMQ, Dr Kaufmann is also an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Ghana; and a Visiting Scholar at the Orthotics and Prosthetics Department of the University of Health and Allied Sciences.

ALSO READ:

• When Koku Anyidoho met NSMQ mistress [Photo]

• How Quiz mistress reacted to video of Asiedu Nketia with NSMQ tune

Dr Kaufmann had her secondary education at the Aburi Girls Senior High School. She obtained her International Baccalaureate Diploma from United World College of the Atlantic in Wales in 1988.

She later proceeded to the University of Pennsylvania for her Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a Master of Science in Engineering and PhD in Biomedical Engineering.