Oguaa Sec Tec celebrates 21yrs Anniversary
By David Allan Paintsil
The Headmistress of the Oguaa Secondary and Technical High School (OSTEC), Mrs. Anastasia Thomford Okyere, has lauded government's educational infrastructure policy that is helping to transform underprivileged second cycle schools across the country, including OSTEC, into model ones.
Speaking at the 21st Anniversary and 3rd Speech and Prize Day on Saturday at Ekon, Mrs. Thomford Okyere said the school had been provided with new girls' dormitories with one completed, while the other is under construction. She went on to say that two boys' dormitories were also under construction.
Again, she said the school had benefited from 12-unit storey classroom and additional six-unit classroom blocks that had transformed the school into one of the emerging educational institutions in the Central Region.
She, therefore, expressed gratitude to the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETfund) for its infrastructural development. The theme for the occasion was 'Infrastructure development – A vital key to academic excellence.'
According to the Headmistress, the school needed an administrative block, dining hall, assembly hall, science laboratory and teachers' bungalow. She appealed to individuals and organisations to complement the government's efforts by assisting the school in its infrastructure development.
She said the school scored 100 percent in last year's examination, and hoped that better results would be sustained this year. She thanked the teachers and non-teaching staff for their hard work that culminated in achieving such unprecedented results, and asked them to keep it up.
The Omanhen of the Oguaa Traditional area, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, who is also Board Chairman of the school, contended that the school was academically performing well with even bad infrastructure, saying that now that the government had provided some level of infrastructure, the students would perform wonders in their examination.
The Member of Parliament for Cape Coast, Lawyer Ebo Barton Odro, said the government would continue to provide more infrastructure for schools in the country, so as to enhance education.
The Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa Doe, in a speech read on her behalf, called on the students to eschew drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and truancy, and study hard to justify the investment made by their parents and the government as a whole.
The Central Regional Educational Director, Sarfo Kantanka, in a speech read for him, praised GETfund for the immense infrastructure provision for schools in the region. He, therefore, asked for more of such projects to improve the education standard in the region.
The School Prefect of OSTEC, Bernard Thompson, said the students had resolved to make the school a beacon of hope for the underprivileged to reach greater heights.
The school cadet corps put up impressive performance, as they thrilled the audience with military skills, while the OSTEC Naval regimental band provided songs to mark the occasion.
The audience was surprised about the springing of educational facilities on the school campus within a short period, and lauded the government on its vision for school infrastructure.
OSETEC was once described as a hen coop by other students in the metropolis, owing to the bad nature of their classrooms and other facilities, but the same could not be said at the moment, as the school has become one of the fast growing second cycle schools in the region.