Let’s collaborate to maintain discipline, Headmistress of St Mary’s SHS urges parents
The Headmistress of St Mary's Senior High School, Mrs Grace Mansa Eshun, has called for closer collaboration between parents and authorities of the school as part of efforts to maintain the highest level of discipline among the students.
Speaking at the 69th Speech and Prize-giving Day of the school in Accra last Saturday, the headmistress said discipline, as an educational tool, was still a major component that had to be be given a lot of attention in order to enhance students’ academic performance.
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Despite commending the staff and prefects of the school for contributing to the maintenance of discipline among the students, Mrs Eshun said more needed to be done, hence her call on parents to make meaningful contribution to the upbringing of the students.
The event was attended by the Greater Accra Regional Director of Education, Dr Hilda Eghan, present and past students of the school, as well as representatives of various heads of schools in the Greater Accra Region.
Current population
Currently, the school has a population of 1,290 students made up of 852 boarders and 438 being day students.
The school also has staff strength of 112 workers which comprise 61 teaching staff and 51 non-teaching staff.
Touching on the performance of the students in the 2018 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), Mrs Eshun revealed that the school registered 345 students out of which 255 candidates passed in all eight subjects, 73 students passed in seven subjects, 12 in six subjects and with six passing in five subjects, respectively.
She said with the exception of Core Mathematics, the average pass mark for the 23 subjects that the students registered to write were from A1 to C6, which was 90 per cent.
"Core Mathematics remains a big challenge, although the percentage pass for core mathematics at grade A1 to E8 was 82 percent, only 55 percent passed with grade A1 to C6 and this is worrying to us," she said.
She explained that the implications of the shortfall was that only 55 per cent of students who sat for the WASSCE in her school would be able to meet the required pass mark of A1 to C6 in all subjects in order to pursue tertiary education.
Going forward, Mrs Eshun said the school had introduced new strategies such as early morning preps, ability groupings, writing of more test and assignments, as well as remedial lessons, as part of measures to effectively prepare this year's WASSCE candidates, particularly in the area of core mathematics.
Challenges
On challenges facing the school, Mrs Eshun called on government and stakeholders to help in addressing the problem of inadequate staff accommodation and the rehabilitation of the weak perimeter walls of the school, which made it easy for people to access the school’s compound any time.
Keynote address
Delivering the keynote address, a travel expert and former student of the school, Princess Umul Hatiyya Ibrahim Mahama, who spoke on the theme, "dare to be different: Unleash the potential to impact the world” admonished the students to identify their gifts, nurture them and make it serve a good cause to the benefit of society.
Awards
In recognition of their hard work, deserving students, whose performance in the 2018 WASSCE brought honour to the school, were awarded.
Ms Franka Adjei-Yeboah was named the best WASSCE student for the school after she obtained 7As and 1B2 in the 2018 WASSCE examination.
Special recognition was given to Ms Naomi Aboagye Dacosta, a Science student, who was also adjudged the overall best Form Three student.
Special prizes were also presented to some teachers and other staff members who had contributed immensely to the development of the school.