THE Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) in Tamale, one of the premier second-cycle schools in the north, came alive last Saturday when the school climaxed its 50th anniversary celebrations with a speech and prize giving day.
It was a colourful event characterised by stupendous cultural performances by the students and an equally impressive turn-out by past students, who were clad in the school’s blue anniversary cloth.
Over 30 students received awards for excelling in various subjects and some staff, corporate bodies and individuals were also honoured for various contributions towards the progress of the school.
The event generated an atmosphere of nostalgia as old students of the school, including the Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, had the opportunity to meet again and share memories of their days in GHANASCO.
Mr Mahama, whose batch were pioneers of the sixth form under the old educational structure, reminisced his school days, but lamented over his inability to relive those memorable moments due to his current position as Veep.
“We spent some of our best days on this campus and it was here (the celebration grounds) that many schools came and met their waterloo in the area of sports,” he stated.
Mr Mahama remembered with fond memory the actions of some tutors, one of whom he christened as “Mona” due to his obsession with the paintings of Mona Lisa.
He also credited the school for giving him his wife, Mrs Lordina Mahama, adding that “this has been a great school and we would forever be proud of being students of this school.”
On the state of the school, the Veep said he was unhappy about the level of deterioration of some dormitories and staff bungalows in the school and gave the assurance that the government would utilise the GETFund to support GHANASCO and all other second-cycle schools in the country.
“Work would soon start on a new dormitory block for the girls and it would be undertaken by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund),” he mentioned.
GHANASCO was established in 1960 by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah as part of his government’s accelerated development plan, which sought to provide the needed human resource for the technological and industrial take-off of the country.
At inception, the school was called the Ghana College, until June 1970 when it was renamed the Ghana Secondary School.
That same year, a Mathematics teacher of the school, remembered only as Mr Lalaji, and his science students invented a rocket, which was subsequently launched by the then Education Minister, Mr William Ofori-Attah.
Since then, the school has evolved to become one of the best-performing schools in the country and particularly in the Northern Sector and its population has grown from 70 to over 2300. Its annual external examination results range between 85 and 98 per cent.
The school is, however, faced with some challenges that have threatened to rob it of its reputation as one of the leading second-cycle schools in the north.
Although built in 1960, the school has no assembly hall and thus, students stand under trees for assembly. Also, the construction of a spacious modern dining hall complex, which commenced in the 1970’s, has still not been completed due to the lack of funds.
The same can be said of some classroom blocks and staff bungalows, which were started, but have been abandoned.
The current state of some of the student’s dormitories, staff bungalows and even the head’s residence leaves much to be desired and needs attention.
It was therefore a welcoming-news when the Veep announced a proposed construction of a new spacious dormitory for the girls by the GETFund.
Another worrying situation is the citing of a cemetery on the school campus, located very close to some classroom blocks.
In fact, several portions of the school land are being encroached upon day in and day out to the extent that one cannot separate the school from the community.
The commencement of the construction of a fence wall for the school is therefore better late than never.
In the face of these challenges, the Headmistress of GHANASCO, Madam Mary Asobayire Dan-Braimah appealed to the government, alumni and corporate institutions to support the school overcome these setbacks.
Hopefully, the anniversary celebrations would set the pace for some extensive rehabilitation of GHANASCO to enable it to sustain its image and continue to contribute its share to the human resource development of the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment