One of the oldest mission schools in the Koforidua Municipality, Presby Junior High School ‘A’, has held its first ever graduation ceremony.
The colourful event, held on Wednesday, 21st June, 2017 at the P. C.G Koforidua District Ascension Hall, was organized to officially graduate 68 Students who took part in the 2017 BECE after Nine (9) years of basic education.
The occasion also gave the final year students the opportunity to hand over the mantle of leadership to their JHS 2 counterparts who have been elected as Prefects for the 2017/18 academic year, and officially send off the Assistant Headmistress, Madam Margaret Effah Danquah who is due for retirement in July 2015.
The programme was under the theme ‘Student’s Discipline and Child Right’: The Role of Basic School Teacher.’
Delivering her annual report at the ceremony, the Headmistress of the school, Ms. Vivian Obuobisa, enumerated a number of challenges hampering effective teaching and learning in the school.
These she said includes the lack of a place of convenience for teachers and conducive classrooms for JHS One and Three Students.
She consequently called for support from the Government, NGO’s, Faith Based Organizations, Corporate Bodies and Philanthropists to remedy the worrying situation to facilitate quality teaching and learning in the School.
The Guest Speaker was the Eastern Regional Manager of Presby Schools, Mrs. Ivy Asantewa Owusu.
In a speech read on her behalf by the Head of Inspectorate at Presby Education Unit, Koforidua, Pastor Ebenezer Obeng Tieku, she stressed the need for discipline in schools and why the basic school teacher must set the pace.
“In ensuring students discipline, it behooves the basic school teacher to act, behave and position himself or herself as a role model to the very students he or she teaches” she stated.
She also reiterated the fact that “rules and regulations that fall within the ambit of policy governing public education must be put in place to help guide the behavior and conduct of students of in Schools.”
Mrs. Ivy Asantewa Owusu again admonished teachers to respect and protect the rights of students.
“Basic School teachers must however, not lose sight of the fact that students (children) have rights that must be respected and protected against the backdrop of wanting to nip indiscipline in the bud in our schools”.
“Children and for that matter students have rights as human beings and also need special care and protection” (Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF, 2005). The basic Human Rights that children have everywhere are the right to survival, the right to development regarding their education and care, the right to protection from exploitation, abuse and neglect, and the right to participation in expressing information and thought”, she continued.
She concluded that “teachers and educators in general must find the balance between students’ discipline and their basic rights so that one is not sacrificed to the detriment of the other.”
Among dignitaries present at the ceremony were Mr Ransford Oteng Asiamah, the Chairman, Rev. P. K Dekyem, District Minister-PCG, Koforidua, Rev. Foster Ampofo, Second Minister-PCG Koforidua, and Rev. Gyamfi Amoah Isaac, Head of Statistics and Welfare, Presby Education Unit Koforidua.
Also in attendance were the PTA Chairman and Vice Chairman of the School, some of the Former Heads of the School, Heads of Sister Schools, Staff of Presby Schools in Koforidua, Parents of the graduating students and continuing students of the school.
By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
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