WATCO Demonstration School opens at Wiawso
The Demonstration School of the Wiawso College of Education (WATCO) has officially been opened at Wiawso in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality in the Western Region.
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The school was established through the instrumentality of the administrative management of WATCO in September 2006 with a population of 38 pupils and located in a wooden structure.
It currently extends from the kindergaten to Junior High School (JHS) One and will sit its first Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2016.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Wiawso Municipal Director of Education, Mr Kwadwo Atremah Afful, said the goal of the education sector was to provide a relevant and quality education for all Ghanaian children of school age to enable them to acquire the skills that would make them functionally literate.
Skills acquisition, he further said, was also to enable schoolchildren to become productive to facilitate poverty reduction and promote wealth creation.
To achieve that he stressed the need for teachers to be more dedicated, refrain from using the textbook as the only source of information and go beyond the box by sourcing information from the Internet and other related sources to make teaching interesting and effective.
He called on pupils of the school to be conscious of their future and concentrate on their studies to develop their careers.
He emphasised the support of the municipal education directorate for the school at all times and advised school authorities on the need to collaborate with the community and together seek development of the school.
The prinicipal of WATCO, Mrs Georgina Lartey, said in as much as basic education needed to be developed, the establishment of the demonstration school was not only a ground for teacher trainees to work but was necessary as it would be good for WATCO in its teaching practice.
She called for the need to expand the school from the JHS level to the senior high school (SHS) level through quality and affordable education.
She acknowledged the contribution of some individuals and commended the staff and students of WATCO for supporting the development of the school.
The headmistress of the school, Madam Janet Oppong, indicated that pupils’ enrolment had increased from 38 in 2006 to the current 319 out of which 154 are boys and 165 girls with staff strength of 18, including non-teaching staff members.
She said through the administration of WATCO, the school had built an additional 10-unit classroom block consisting of 10 water closets, as well as a computer laboratory with 12 computers.
The school, she added, achieved an enviable feat when it emerged first in the municipal sports competition organised for schools in the Wiawso area.
In order to help achieve 100 per cent in its first BECE sitting, she appealed to the general public to support the construction of more classroom blocks and a library, and increase the number of furniture.
The Anglican Bishop of Wiawso Diocese, Rt. Rev. Abraham Kobina Ackah, cut the tape to officially open the school.