By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, Dec 16, GNA – A total of 45 Senior High Schools (SHSs) are taking part in the 2026 ACE Spoken Word Contest, a competition tailored to groom students in critical thinking, confidence, act, write and perform on the spot.
Participating schools deliberate on topics including volunteerism and civic responsibilities in the Ghanaian setting and suggest what should be done right.
The preliminary contest is ongoing and the final performances to declare a winner is slated for May 2026.
Madam Marilyn Owusu, Executive Director, ACE Consult and America Corner Kumasi, speaking at the official opening of the 2026 Contest in Kumasi, said the Consult had worked with the U.S. Embassy in Ghana for over two decades in a bid to help students to be assertive, confident and also have access to schools in the United States.
According to her, most Ghanaian students prior to such initiatives did not have the confidence to take up certain roles, adding that, this birthed the idea in 2024 to groom students not only to get to attend schools in the U.S, but also to help them become eloquent critical thinkers and confident through spoken word contests.
In the first year (2024), 17 public SHSs in Kumasi registered, extending it to 31schools in 2025 and this year the number of schools has increased to 45 from both private and public.
Madam Owusu mentioned that in February this year, schools in the Greater Accra Region will take their turns and hope to include other regions in the coming years.
She said students who had participated in the contests in the past years had become assertive and been exposed to ACE Consult as a test center for almost all the U.S tests.
Professor David Asamoah, Pro Vice-Chancellor, KNUST, commended the ACE Consult for its vision, consistency and commitment to youth development through education and creative expression.
He said the ACE Spoken Word Contest had now become a powerful platform for nurturing confidence, critical thinking, creativity and effective communication among young people and such outcomes aligned with the broader goals of education and national development.
GNA
Edited by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah/Kenneth Odeng Adade