MOBA Election: Ebusuapanyin candidates agree on taking school from govt but disagree on approach
Candidates vying for President (Ebusuapanyin) of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA) have expressed displeasure over the quality of education in their alma mater.
Advertisement
To correct this, they believe the Old Boys and the Methodist Church needed to have a greater say in who gets admitted and employed to study and teach or work in the school.
They, therefore, agreed that the time had come for the association to take Mfantsipim back from the government, the stakeholder they said was responsible for the current undesirable trajectory of the school.
The aspirants are Reverend Kofi Ankamah-Asamoah (Class of 1980) and Moses K. Baiden Jr. (Class of 1983)
They were speaking at the an engagement on Thursday (Oct 19, 2023) dubbed; “Know your candidates; A platform for all old boys to engage candidates.”
It was organised by the MOBA Election Hub to enable the candidates promote their manifestos on which they are running for the various offices on the MOBA national executive committee.
Others who also engaged in discussions were David Indome (Class of 1994); Joseph Dadson (Class of 2002); and Frederick Ankomah (Class of 2003) all vying for Decade Representative (20 - 29).
- Related articles:
- MOBA '83 donates GH¢1.4million towards MOBA Sports Complex
- MOBA Election Hub: Candidates raise concerns over student population [VIDEO]
Endowment fund
Mr Baiden (Class of 1983) lamented how even though Old Boys were still heavily investing in the school, there were no longer enrolling their wards but rather paying huge sums of money to have them study in private schools.
That, he said, was because their wives especially, didn’t trust the quality of education.
Therefore, Mr Baiden, said that in order to take Mfantsipim back from the government and restore it to its former glory, MOBA needed to build a $10 million endowment fund over 50 months, that would serve as the financial backbone for running of the school.
“The school is funded by the government for $400,000 a year. So building an endowment will tell the government that we don’t need you to give us that money, we want our school back. The Methodist Church went to the government because of money and so once we have money, we can once again determine our future,” he explained.
Sustainable approach
Rev. Ankamah-Asamoah (Class of 1980) noted that the government had promised to deliver the school back to the church and MOBA.
He said, while they waited, the Old Boys must develop a gradual and sustainable approach to raising money for the running of Mfantsipim so that they would be ready when it was finally handed over to the association.
Rev. Ankamah-Asamoah explained that rallying at least a 100 committed Old Boys from each year group spanning from 1965 to 2014 to give $20 a month would earn Mfantsipim about $1 million each year.
“The desire to take the school back is something that people are passionate about. So if you’re really passionate, you must put your money where your mouth is,” he stressed.
