The Begoro Presbyterian Senior High School (SHS) on Saturday held a grand durbar to commemorate its 40th anniversary on the theme: “Moral Discipline: An essential key to academic and career progression.”
The anniversary celebration was well attended by the clergy, some members of Parliament (MPs), heads of institutions, educationists, parents, traditional heads, old students, as well as Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
Giving a brief history of the school, Mrs. Selina Danso, the Headmistress said, it was established in 1972 with 70 students and six teachers. It was placed under the hegemony of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in 1992.
She said when the school was relocated to its present location in 1996 it had only three structures engulfed by a thick forest with acute problems of water, transportation, insecurity and accommodation.
“Thank God, with collective efforts of parents, government and other well-wishers, coupled with a clear sense of commitment, dedication and vision, the school has been expanded and transformed with the provision of facilities that have reduced the suffering of students and staff and to improve upon the standards of performance,” he expressed.
Currently, the school’s enrolment stands at 2,584 which is made up of 1,287 boys and 1,297 girls. It has 1,962 boarding and 622 day students.
Begoro Presec is also now staffed with 102 graduate teachers and 97 non-teaching staff with a high hope of academic improvement in the coming years since it scored 86 per cent at the 2012 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
However, the school’s phenomenal growth and expansion over the last ten years had come with a lot of challenges such as inadequate accommodation for students and staff, inadequate classrooms and computers and acute water shortage.
The Headmistress of the school therefore appealed to the government, stakeholders and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school with the provision of an 18-unit classroom block and a 2500 capacity Dining Hall to ease congestion.
She also appealed for the construction of a Small Town Water System or a Rain Water Harvesting Project to ameliorate the current water problem.
Mrs Danso again appealed for additional staff bungalows to enable more teachers to be accommodated in the school to strengthen supervision and discipline.
“The school currently has only 15 computers recently donated by Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC). I therefore appeal to all to assist the school with 100 computers for effective teaching and learning of ICT,” she added.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo, who has been a close friend of the school with which a dormitory had been named after him, donated 15 laptops to the school and promised to continue to do more.
He urged the students to exhibit high sense of moral discipline in order to become responsible adults for the benefit of the nation and also entreated the teachers to be good examples to their students.
The 1980 year group of the school’s old students also donated 10 set of computers to the school to help improve ICT teaching and learning.
