Academic excellence must lead to future excellence at workplaces – Veep
Mr John Dramani Mahama, Vice President of Ghana, has underscored the need for academic excellence to be translated into future excellence at the workplace.
This, he said, would not only enable the nation to re-gain the resources it had invested in the citizenry, but it could move Ghana onto a higher pedestal for socio-economic development.
The Vice President made the call in a speech read for him by Mrs Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh, Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Pre-Tertiary Education at the Golden Jubilee celebration/Speech and Prize-Giving Day of Tema Senior High School (TEMASCHO).
The theme for the celebration was: ”Fifty Years of Academic Excellence and Total Person Development.”
Mr Mahama noted that academic excellence without moral discipline “does not lead a person far, because in the field of work and in future family life, it is the moral discipline that directs the achievement of excellence.”
He urged stakeholders in education to help train the Youth to lead morally upright lives.
“Stakeholders can take up these challenges by getting involved in the training of children at home, church, school and then finally the community.
“Parents should imbibe into their wards the need to respect the elderly, have fellow feeling, and not selfishness, which is now eating into the very fabric of society.”
The Vice President urged the students to take up the challenge by practically getting involved in community activities, classroom projects, sensitizing the community on the proper disposal of waste, proper hand washing, cleanliness and the need to patronize government health programmes.
Such ventures, he said, would allow the students to be appreciative of the needs of society, set high moral tones for them, and build the community and voluntary spirit in them.
Mr Mahama advised students to guard against the wrong use of the computer, and its over-dependence, since that could also gradually contribute to a drop in their Intelligent Quotients.
He urged parents and guardians to help their children to achieve excellence, by monitoring, counseling, befriending and communicating with them, adding that this would go a long way to help nip problems of the children in the bud.
The Vice President urged them not to relent in their efforts to upgrade themselves to cope with the changing trends in education, in order to help keep their students abreast with time.
“Teachers can do their part by inculcating all the values of education in their students while at the same time, imparting academic excellence to them.”
The Vice President paid glowing tribute to Dr Francis Kwamina Buah of blessed memory, founder and first Headmaster of TEMASCHO, for his vision, foresight, dedication, commitment and selflessness, and urged the school’s authorities not to be complacent, but to build on the achievements of their predecessors.
Mr Kingsley Kofi Ditsa, National President of TEMASCHO Old Students Association (TOSA), said from a humble beginning, the Association, with the sole aim of bringing past students under one umbrella, had grown through thick and thin into a formidable one.
Mr Ditsa commended the school’s authorities for embracing and institutionalizing TOSA’s proposal of instituting an Annual Remembrance and Thanks-giving Day in memory of departed souls from the school community.
He urged past students (Anchorites) of TEMASCHO to resolve not only to offer much of their time and money, but to also organize functioning and effective year groups, to help uplift the image of their Alma Mater.
Mrs Elizabeth Ama Asare, Headmistress of the School, said TEMASCHO, established and commissioned on September 22, 1961 with an initial student population of 52 and six members of staff, the school could currently boast of 1,702 students and 102 graduate teachers with 66 ancillary staff.
On the 2010/2011 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, Mrs Asare said out of a total of 545 candidates presented by the school, as many as 436 passed in eight subjects; 75 in seven subjects; 21 in six subjects, seven in five subjects; one each in four and three subjects, with two absentees.
The Headmistress outlined the challenges facing the school, and mentioned staff and student accommodation as the most pressing one.
She called for the expansion of the boys’ dormitories, a larger library, expansion of a dining hall and the completion of a girls’ dormitory block.
Master Elvis Ampah Okyere, Senior Prefect of the School, called for the construction of a multi-purpose stadium for the school, since it hosted inter-zonal football, volley ball, lawn tennis, handball, basketball and athletic competitions.
Reverend Dr Seth Ablorh, Founder and Medical Director of Manna Hospital, and an Anchorite, who chaired the function, urged the students to maintain discipline in the school.
Earlier, two projects, the construction of a School Gate and a Clinic were commissioned.
Prizes and awards were distributed to deserving students and staff.
Source: GNA