Old Swesconians rally members for devt - Launch 65th anniversary
The Old Swesconians Association has launched its 65th anniversary in Accra with a call on members to raise funds to bridge the infrastructural deficit gap in the school.
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The night was marked in a grand style with the launch of the association’s 65th anniversary, the unveiling of a new school crest, the theme for the 65th anniversary and a documentary of the current state of the school.
The event, which was on the theme: “Building a resilient educational institution in a challenging global economy: The gains and challenges of the Swesco journey” attracted a large retinue of all year groups the Swedru Senior High School had nurtured over the past six decades.
Infrastructure deficit
A documentary about the current state of the school revealed several challenges such as limited resources, particularly huge infrastructural deficit resulting in insecurity.
These included lack of a fence around the school, abandoned or unfinished building projects, poor state of school laboratories and dining halls.
The Headmistress of the school, Golda Andam, highlighting the challenges, said there was a huge staff accommodation problem and that only 28 teachers out of the 178 were on campus.
That, according to the headmistress, made it very difficult to maintain discipline among the students and added that : “We have about 4,000 students with just few teachers on campus to supervise and attend to these students.”
“We call upon all stakeholders to come in to support and improve on the infrastructural facilities in the school because it is when you have enough infrastructure that your academics will improve,” she said.
Revive
The President of the Global Old Swesconians Association, Samuel Attah Mensah, said the initiative was to revive, strengthen and to identify some of the needs of the school.
“We also want to use this occasion to launch our 65th anniversary which will be climaxed in March next year and to galvanise the body of our association and to help bring direction and purpose to the association,” he said.
He expressed the hope that members of the association would help expand the existing dining hall, embark on a building project to house more teachers on campus, renovate and expand the science laboratory project, and also start an Agric farm project.
Mr Mensah said the association was committed to giving back to the school and therefore, expressed the hope that members would raise funds to execute the projects by next year.
Structured environment
A Deputy Minister of Education, John Ntim Fordjour, said the ministry would take the necessary steps to ensure that the building projects were awarded to qualified contractors to provide quality work and a more structured environment for the students.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to improve the educational system in the country in spite of the global economic downturn.
Rev. Fordjour, therefore, commended the association for contributing to the development of the school, adding: “There’s much more we can do together to ensure the bright future of the children.”
As part of his contribution, Rev. Fordjour donated GH¢10,000 to support the school’s project.
Night of music
The night was set for fun as the CLOGSAG band entertained guests with different genres of music, while tables were served with drinks with members of the association taking selfies and group photos.
After the acknowledgment of year groups and dignitaries, the global president of the association led the fundraising and auctioning of memorabilia.
There was a musical interlude at a point during the programme for all present to eat, drink and make merry.
