AFC, Clubhouse Ghana Ltd to the rescue: Ghana’s first nursery school refurbished
Ghana’s first nursery school, the Queen Elizabeth II Educational Foundation, sited in Accra which has been in a deplorable state, has been given a makeover through a collaborative effort between the Accra Financial Centre (AFC) and Clubhouse Ghana Limited.
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Extensive works undertaken on the school building block which accommodates a crèche and two streams of kindergarten, included re-roofing and re-fitting of ceilings, re-tiling of floors, installation of new toilets and sinks and the installation of ceiling fans for all classrooms and offices.
New set of furniture were also provided for each class, including for storage.
Last Tuesday, the refurbished school infrastructure and equipment worth $12,000 were handed over to the administrator of the 74-year-old early childhood learning institution.
The gesture was not only to preserve the school, named after the late Queen of England, but also to enhance teaching and learning.
School
Queen Elizabeth II Educational Foundation is a private community school established in 1950 when Lady Arden-Clarke, wife of the last Governor of the then Gold Coast, Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke, led philanthropists to build an educational facility for children which, at the time, became known as the Accra Day Nursery.
The Accra Day Nursery, the very first of its kind in the country, was then entrusted to the local community under the auspices of the overlord of the Gbese.
Some children and staff of the school as well as the benefactors
The school’s name changed to ‘Queen Elizabeth II Educational Foundation’ in 1961 after the British monarch, accompanied by Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, paid a historic visit to children at the school.
Operating just a crèche and a Kindergarten in its prime years, over the years, it has advanced from its purely nursery status and gone into the full stretch of primary and basic education, serving mostly families in the Gbese community, children and dependents of Makola traders as well as some market porters.
However, due to financial constraints, the school has not seen any significant refurbishment, particularly at the nursery department which currently caters for over 150 pupils.
Gesture
The Regional Head, West Africa, of Lango Real Estate, George Adjei-Ampofo, who inaugurated the refurbished building, said it was an honour to be of help to the school that laid the foundation in the country’s educational system.
“For us, it is an honour to be of some help to this great school.
As part of our commitment to give back to society, we are delighted to hand over a completely refurbished facility to the management,” Mr Adjei-Ampofo said.
Handing over the refurbished building to the management of the school, team leaders for the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, Janet Ghartey (AFC) and Alice Esi Coleman (Clubhouse Ghana), said they were ‘deeply touched’ by the level of disrepair at the nursery school when they made their first contact with school authorities and inspected the existing infrastructure last year.
The gesture to refurbish this piece of history of Ghana was also in line with the two companies’ policy of promoting basic education whenever possible.
“We were not only keen to preserve this important piece of history in Ghana’s educational system, but also to ensure that the school was supported to serve its purpose of providing quality education,” Ms Ghartey said.
Ms Coleman said they wasted no time in deciding to help, stating that: “Once the need for support was established for Queen Elizabeth II Educational Foundation, it took barely two months to transform the run-down school into a new and refreshing facility worthy of its enviable history”.
Bedrock of education
The School Administrator, Ebenezer Tetteh Nartey, on behalf of the management of the school, expressed their profound gratitude to the benefactors, saying the gesture would go a long way to enhance the academic quality and status of the school.
“Nursery education is the bedrock of education in general and we are determined to build a sound foundation to support our basic schools,” he said.
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