CONTENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION CRUMBLING (PAGE 17, NOV 27)

THE Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, has stated that in spite of the expense and expansion in infrastructure by policy makers, secondary education seems to be crumbling in content.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said until Ghanaians of all political persuasions regarded secondary education as vital to nation building, questions of the quality of secondary education would continue to haunt the nation.
These were contained in an address read on his behalf by Mr Emmanuel Owusu Ansah-Asare, Deputy Director, Teacher Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES) at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Assin Nsuta Senior High School at Assin Nsuta in the Assin South District in the Central Region.
Mr Tettey- Enyo said that was why the Government was encouraging private-sector development, and was also partnering religious bodies, communities and other private educationists in establishing schools, colleges and universities in a bid to ensure total enrolment of children in both basic and secondary schools to progress to tertiary levels.
He said it was also in line with this that the community of Assin Nsuta and its surrounding neighbours co-ordinated their efforts to establish the Assin Nsuta Senior High School under the patronage of the then PNDC Secretary, the late Richard Kojo Ampomah, and others, and nurtured it into a fully-fledged school.
He asked them to use the occasion to reflect on the idea and the circumstance that prompted them to come out with the laudable idea of establishing the school and identify its shortcomings and provide solutions.
The minister also urged all stakeholders to support the Government in the struggle to liberate “our minds of ignorance and poverty”.
In his report, the Headmaster of the school, Reverend Franklin K. Boadu, said the school, which started as a community day school in 1984 with its core mission as an agricultural school, with seven students and three masters, now had a population of 800.
Since its inception, Rev. Boadu said not much had changed as the school continued “to languish in the borrowed walls of its birth”.
He, therefore, appealed to the Government to assist in providing accommodation at the new site to ease the plight of both staff and students.
He commended the founding fathers, namely Nana Brefuor Apenten II (Chief of Assin Nsuta), Mr Vincent Pinkrah, the late Mr Philip Afrane Gaisie, Mr D. N. Enin and Professor Dominic K. Fobih for their invaluable contribution to the school.
The Chief of Nsuta, Nana (Dr) Ohemeng Awere V, expressed his appreciation for the achievements of the school, despite its challenges, and promised to explore more avenues to assist in providing the necessary infrastructure to enhance teaching and learning.
Mr Augustine Abankwa, who chaired the function, commended all those whose contributions had brought the school to its current level.