Accra Girls Senior High School beat off very stiff competition from Ghana Christian International High School (GCIHS) to win the maiden edition of the Greater Accra edition of the Ace Spoken Word Competition by a single point.
At the end of three grueling rounds of contest, they garnered 86 points, just ahead of GCIHS, who got 85 points. Forces’ Senior High Technical School and O’Reilly Senior High School came third and fourth, with 77 and 75 points respectively.
The Champions took an early lead in the first round of the contest, which involved spoken word performances and dramatisations. They led the pack with a single point, just ahead of O’Reilly SHS and GCIHS, who were tied on 36 points, while Forces SHTS got 34 points.
They stretched their lead in the second round of the contest, which was a general knowledge quiz, garnering 15 points, ahead of GCIHS and Forces SHTS, who picked up 11 points each, and O’Reilly who got 8 points.
GCIHS rallied strongly in the third round of the contest, which was an improvisation round, where the contestants were given random key words and told to write an improvised poem to be performed before the audience.
They got 38 points for their performance in this round, ahead of Accra Girls who got 34 points, Forces SHTS who got 32 points and O’Reilly who picked up 31 points.
At the end of the contest, Accra Girls had 86 points, with GCIHS following closely on their heels with 85 points, whilst Forces SHTS and O’Reilly trailed them with 77 and 75 points respectively.
For their excellent performance, Accra Girls received a trophy, certificates, a citation, GH₵7,000 and some stationery.
For placing second, Ghana Christian International High School were given certificates, some stationery and a cash reward of GH₵5,000.
The students from Forces SHTS received some certificates and a cash prize of GH₵3,000, while O’Reilly received some certificates and GH₵2,000.
The Executive Director of ACE Consult, Marilyn Owusu, explained that the Spoken Word contest was first birthed in Kumasi in 2024, growing steadily in three years to 46 schools.
Eventually the Spoken Word train came to Accra in February 2026, with 27 Senior High Schools registering to participate.
She explained that the idea behind the contest, which is a partnership between the United States Embassy and ACE Consult, “is to empower our young students to become critical thinkers, so they are tasked to write poetry – spoken word – on the spot, and then perform.”
Mrs Owusu also said the organisers are seeking to get them to become confident and eloquent public speakers who can address any audience.
The Acting Public Affairs Officer at the United States Embassy, Matthew Asada, expressed the Embassy’s excitement to be part of the maiden Greater Accra Edition of the Spoken Word contest, which in light of America co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico, is centred around football.
He said, “we’ve been doing things on sporting culture, on culinary culture, sports integrity, preventing [human] trafficking that’s related to sports. So we’ve done a series of programmes over the last year, and this is our final event before the tournament starts next week.”
