Obuasi known widely for its rich gold wealth can also also boast of its academic excellence. Obuasi continues to dominate in both regional and national ratings in the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
Students from Obuasi have gone on to win national awards due to their exceptional academic performance. This year, Benedicta Saaman from AngloGold Ashanti school was given a Presidential award for her stellar performance in the 2022 BECE further entrenching Obuasi’s name as hub of academic excellence.
It is worth mentioning that, one cannot talk about Obuasi’s academic achievements without mentioning the invaluable contributions of private schools in terms of shaping the future of students as well as offering employment to the youth.
AngloGold Ashanti school which started as Spearce school was birthed in the 1960s, Queen Egyimah school commonly known as ‘Auntie Bee’ was established in 1978 as the first individually owned school in Obuasi .
Schools like St Margaret, Neumann International, Anamon Hyeren, Adansi High, Freeman school( now defunct), Holy Child school, Just Love, New Generation, Enefel, New Method( defunct), Abusco, Steadfast Academy, Holy Family, Holy Trinity, King of Kings ( defunct), Triumphant Academy, St Philips have all played different roles in giving kids from Obuasi the best of education.
Kids from Obuasi can be found in top class schools in Ghana mostly because of the impact of private schools whose owners go through challenging times in sustaining the performance of the students.
But little has been made of how these schools have survived over the period, their challenges and how they have surmounted those challenges to continue to employ the youth and give kids from Obuasi the best form of education.
SMS News spoke with the headmaster of Queen Egyimah school to find out how the hither to best private school in Obuasi has been faring over the years.
Established in 1978, Queen Egyimah school was a dominant force regarding education in Obuasi churning out outstanding BECE performances with their students excelling and attending the best schools in the country. A lot of their graduates won several presidential awards.
The Headmaster of the school Adu Gyamfi who has taught in the school for a decade said the performance of the school has taken a nosedive mainly because of AngloGold Ashanti’s care and maintenance intoduced in 2014. This saw a lot of workers of the mine retrenched. Most of those who left Obuasi, left with their wards. Chunk of these children were students of Queen Egyimah. ” This really affected our school since it resulted in a drop in enrolment and some left with their parents”.
Mr. Gyamfi again cited lack of support from the Parents Association who were supportive in time past. He said the parents used to contribute towards teaching and learning in the past but he could not fathom why most parents have withdrawn their support to the school.
The headmaster of the school also blamed the school’s dip in enrolment and performance to the level of existing competition among schools in Obuasi. ” I will say the competition is healthy though since there a lot of private schools in the system and they are all competing with us for students so you can’t have it like it used to be some time ago”.
He again conceded that the school’s inability to acquire vehicle to transport students to and fro the school has been a source of concern. He said the school has not been able to attract kids far from the school due to the absence of vehicle .
WAY FORWARD
Mr. Adu Gyamfi again told SMS News that management of Queen Egyimah school is prepared to start from the scratch and implement what the school did well in time past.
He intimated that the school has the best Human Resource to steer the affairs of the school but what is needed is for authorities to restrategise and see how best to bring back their lost glory.
1 comment
Queen Egyimah, Adansi High school, Newman Sch, are some of the best and oldest private schools in Obuasi, they should back up the performances of their students.