Ghana on the board at Owlypia Global

The photographs are dated between 10 and 16 August 2025, and they were not taken in Accra. An auditorium with a mural running across the back wall. Lanyards. Groups of young people in national colours. And in the middle of one frame, an orange banner held up at both corners: the Crystal Heights crest, and under it, in black, THE CRYSTALS. That is a school team at Owlypia Global in London. Owlypia describes itself as a global competition for young minds, and runs in three age bands: Owlins at nine to eleven, Owlets at twelve to fourteen, Owlys at fifteen to eighteen. Crystal Heights was there in the Owlets band, and one of its pupils, Joel Etiam Mensah, was recognised there for public speaking. The certificate is legible in the photograph, so we can quote it rather than characterise it. It is a Certificate of Excellence, signed on behalf of the Owlypia Committee, and it reads: in recognition of exceptional public speaking abilities demonstrated in the Impromptu Challenge in the Owlets Category (ages 12-14) at the Owlypia Global London. The dates on it are 10-16 Aug 2025. Behind him the screen lists the proficient public speakers in that category, with entries from Kazakhstan above and below, and beside his own name, GHANA. It is worth being clear about what an impromptu challenge is, because the word excellence on a certificate can flatten it. A speaker is handed a subject and given very little time with it. There is no script to fall back to and no help once the clock starts. Whatever a child brings into that room is what they have already built, over years, out of reading and arguing and being made to stand up and finish a thought in front of people who are listening. A pupil of twelve to fourteen doing that in a hall in London, against an international field, is the kind of result a school could reasonably put on a billboard. His family were happy for us to name him. What is still missing is the better half: how he found the words. The certificate records the outcome and nothing about the minutes that produced it, and that account belongs to him. When he tells it, it will be published here. The team went as The Crystals and came back with the flag in the picture. That much we can say now.