Ghana National marks 68th Speech, Prize-giving Day
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, has underscored the need for educational institutions to focus on the social and academic development of students as a prerequisite for their growth and development.
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She said the nation’s socio-economic development required critical thinking which demanded the need to instil in students such values which would enable them to become responsible adults, and added that, “In today’s world we need critical minds, capable of solving critical problems. We have to teach our children the values of self-reliance; in doing this, we create a legacy for generations.”
Educating the youth
The EC boss was addressing the 68th Speech and Prize-giving Day durbar of the Ghana National College in Cape Coast last Saturday. The day was on the theme: “Educating the youth to be self-reliant: The key to National Development.”
The programme was marred by a two-hour downpour, making the football park, which was the venue for the occasion, soggy. Consequently, the organisers rushed through the programme, skipping most of the items.
Mrs Osei said education should prepare students for life and should, therefore, go beyond rote learning and curriculum.
Values
She said the history of many schools was replete with people of value and added that the contributions of teachers, families and individuals showed that “we can divorce problems of our society and trying to improve this creates legacy”.
She commended the school’s old students association for its support for the alma mater and urged members to rededicate themselves to improve the lot of the students.
The Headmistress of the college, Mrs Juliana Owusu-Ansah, said although the college could not reach its target this year, it came closer, and added that “we achieved an appreciable general performance and were 22nd out of 600 schools.”
She said the school, with the help of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), had managed to put up a three-unit classroom block with an office and washroom, which was expected to assist in decongesting the overcrowded classrooms, and pledged to steer the affairs of the college such that it would be among the first 20 schools in the country.
Advice to parents
Mrs Owusu-Ansah advised parents not to be “overly protective” of their children and further appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to supply institutions with their acceptable forms of discipline to enable them to manage the schools peacefully.
In his report, the Head Boy of the college, Master Borris Cobold, said the academic standards inherited by the college from its predecessors, made “our time in office challenging, as we have quite a height to build upon”.
He commended the instructors and contestants of the school’s National Science and Mathematics quiz team for the good performance they put up at the regional qualifiers and for qualifying to the national level.
