Apam SHS makes strides at 60
A former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Kobina Yankson, has called on the government to pay more attention to technical and vocational education.
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He said records showed there were about 500 public senior high schools in the country which provided a ‘grammar-type’ of education as against 26 public technical schools.
Prof. Yankson said this during the Diamond Jubilee and speech and prize-giving day celebration of Apam SHS over the weekend.
Established in 1953 at Paado's plains, a suburb of Apam (a coastal town in the area), the school started operations under cocoa and oak trees, under the management of Rev. deGraft-Johnson, as a day school with Mr C.S Arthur Hesse as the only teacher.
He appealed to the government to convert some of the 200 new SHSs’ promised by the President into technical schools so that they could produce technical and vocational oriented graduates to feed the 10 polytechnics and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
“In this era of globalisation, driven by technology and science, Ghana’s efforts at expanding secondary education in the vocational institutions will be in the best interest of the country rather than the existing ‘grammar-type’ of education,” he said.
The theme for the event was: “Character and Efficiency: Our Heritage, Our Future, Our Bond.”
Prof. Yankson, a past student of the school, described the theme as very appropriate in view of the rising indiscipline in society and that it was also in line with the school’s motto: “Obrapa gya owura kwan,” literally meaning character and efficiency.
Prof. Yankson commended the Gomoa West District Assembly and government for providing 18 unit classroom blocks and four unit teachers’ quarters for the school.
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Sarpong, said a well-informed population coupled with morally sound people could build a democratic and prosperous society.
“Our communities should not perceive the education of our children as the responsibility of the government and therefore sit unconcerned,” he said, adding that “since education is a shared responsibility, it requires that all hands must be on deck if we are to attain highly enlightened population within the shortest possible time.”
The Headmaster of the School, Mr Archibold Kobina Fuah, said in the 2013 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the school presented 966 students and scored 100 per cent passes.
He enumerated some challenges facing the school as the construction of an assembly hall and chapel complex, construction of additional bungalows for teachers, re-tarring of the school’s roads, construction of a larger common room for teachers, construction of a new ICT centre, recruitment of more non-teaching staff, and fixing of pavement blocks on the school’s assembly grounds.
Earlier, the bust of the Minister of Education in the First Republic, the late Kojo Botsio, through whose efforts the school was constructed and the Second Headmaster from 1959-1979, Mr Peter Augustus Owiredu, were unveiled along with three other projects.
The President of Ghana Chamber of Mines and a son of the second headmaster, Mr Daniel Owiredu, who chaired the function, said the sixtieth milestone of the school represented a fresh call for all to uphold the vision of the founding fathers.
Source: GNA
