The Vice-President, John Mahama has called on school authorities to map out strategies to bring discipline in schools, saying, the earlier discipline was injected the better it would be for the image of the country’s educational system.
He said the rising spate of indiscipline in schools has left in its wake vices such as occultism, homosexuality and smoking being perpetrated by some students with impunity,
Vice-President Mahama was speaking at the 50th Anniversary speech and prize-giving day of the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO), in Tamale last Saturday.
The anniversary, themed, “Secondary education in Northern Ghana: The role of GHAHASCO @50,” brought together old students including Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Judges, media practitioners and a host of other dignitaries.
Known then as the Ghana College, the school was established in January 1960 by Dr Kwame Nkrumah as one of the Government Trust Schools, to address the educational disparities between the Northern Territories and the Colonies in the South.
Since its inception 50 years ago, many a Northerner have passed through the gates of the school, which started with 70 boys and now has a mixed student population of over 2,300, one-third of which are females.
Vice-President Mahama, an old student of the school, delivered a speech reminiscence of his alma mater, and assured the school authorities of his commitment to use his good offices to mobilize logistics to address the school’s infrastructural challenges.
He tasked the school’s P.T.A. and other corporate bodies to put their shoulders to the wheel to help uplift GHANASCO to a high pedestal the school use to enjoy some years back.
Earlier the Vice President had laid the foundation for the construction of the Girls’ dormitory, which is a near death-trap. The project is to be re-constructed with funds from the GETfund, while strenuous efforts were being made to build a fence wall, drainage system and the installation of lighting system in the school.
He announced packages which had been donated by philanthropists to the school including books for the school’s library, computers, drugs for the dispensary, and a scholarship package sponsored by the Indian government for the overall best female student.
Vice-President Mahama said the government was tailoring appropriate policies to achieve quality education, adding, such policies would focus on resourcing educational institutions to provide the right type of graduates to fit into the country’s development aspirations.
He said the move was also to ensure that products from the schools did not only fit into white collar jobs but graduates who would become self-employed and to also create jobs in the system.
The Vice-President stated that knowledge-based economies were better placed to compete in the global economy and appealed to students to take the study of ICT serious.
On the intake of new entrants into Senior High Schools, which encountered problems owing to inadequate accommodation, he said the government was on top of the issue, stressing that construction of dormitory blocks was being accelerated.
He called on old students of the school to give back to their alma mater, as a way of supporting new infrastructural projects in the school and donated GHC 1,000 towards that cause.
Mary Asobayire Dan-Braimah, Headmistress of the School said the school had produced over 13,000 students since its inception and added that among its products were high level individuals and leading members of the Ghanaian society.
She said the school continues to perform creditably in its academic endeavour and mentioned its exploits in inter-collegiate sporting events as well as quiz competitions and school debates.
She then expressed appreciation to the government for its support to the school and hoped that projects earmarked to improve the school’s infrastructure would be carried out with dispatch
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Story: George Azirigo
19/11/10
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