The Anumle Basic and Junior High school on Friday, 17th March, 2023 emerged winners of the maiden edition of International Day of Forest Inter-schools quiz competition organised by the Forestry Commission under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

After an exciting but though competition among the four schools; Anunmle basic & JHS, Aggrey basic school, Sackey Odoi basic and Nii Okine basic, Anunmle basic & JHS beat Aggrey basic school in the final round of the competition and emerged champions.

Giving the opening statement at the event, Benito Owusu-Bio, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, responsible for Lands and Forestry indicated that the United Nations General Assembly in a bid to protect forests worldwide declared March 21 of every year, as the International Day of Forests and for many years, this global celebration has been creating awareness worldwide about the importance of forests and the various aspects that need to be looked at to ensure that the present and future generations can benefit from it.

He also noted that the theme for the celebration as chosen by the United Nations as "Forests and Health" state that Forests provide ecosystem services such as food, fuelwood, medicinal plants, clean water and income, as well as clean air, all of which directly impacts human health and well-being.

Mr Owusu-Bio underscored the importance of the quiz to the students saying "as future leaders we want to inculcate the culture of tree growing forest conservation into their day to day activities,” adding that “the quiz competition is also a way of having fun whilst learning more about the importance of forests to human health"

He disclosed that the quiz, which was the first of its kind for first cycle schools, will be sustained and extended to other regions of the country in subsequent years.

Congratulating all participants after the competition, Mr. John Allotey, the CEO of the Forestry Commission said he was wowed by their show of intellectual capacity and urged them to continue to study hard.

He opined that the idea of the quiz competition was to get students at the first and second cycle schools involved in the fight against climate change and global warming so the unborn generations can have better environmental conditions in the near future.

Mr. Allotey appreciated the organisers of the programme, the quiz master and the Ministry for their support in making the event a resounding success.

The Winner of the quiz competition took home a cash prize of GHC5000, a crystal plaque and 10 branded T-shirts, the 1st runner up got a cash amount of GHC 4000, a crystal plaque and 10 branded T-shirts, 3rd place, also got GHC 3000, a crystal plaque and 10 branded T- shirts while the 4th place school, took home GHC 2000, a crystal plaque and 10 T-shirts. Aside the overall awards to participating schools, each participant of the competition gets Branded books, mathematical set, pack of pens and T-shirts.