By Jacqueline Emefa Amponsah
Philomena Owusu-Ansah, Headmistress of St. Mary’s Senior High School, has appealed to government to improve the school’s facilities for effective teaching and learning. She emphasised the school’s commitment to nurturing well-rounded individuals and also foster a strong academic environment.
Mrs. Owusu-Ansah made these remarks at the launch of the school’s 75th Anniversary in Accra. She said despite the school’s contribution to the country’s human resource development, it is confronted with many challenges that need urgent government attention.
“We want to use this ceremony to let people know that this is what we need. Currently, the assembly hall that we are using is not able to contain the number of students that we have in the school. So we want people to come on board to help us to expand this assembly hall.”
“We also need a dormitory to occupy the number of students that we have here. There are a lot of demands for the school but because we don’t have enough accommodation we are not able to take them so we want people to come and then help us also to get accommodation for our staff where they can be here to supervise the activities of our girls,” she said.
Ayesha Bedwei Ibe, the Managing Partner Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and a member of the 1993/1995 year group of the school, encouraged both present and past students to continue to contribute their quota to the school’s development. “These are values that, when I look back, I realise that we were being trained, and we’re being taught critical values that were going to help us in our lives going forward. I identified them in my speech, and I know there are many more, but I identified certain ones that now I have the language for. Because when you’re younger, you don’t have the language for it.”
“But experience now tells that, oh, I was being taught care, how to care for people. I was being taught discipline. I was being taught how to share.”
“So all of the lessons that we learned when we were actually have turned out to be values that form the foundations of who we are as people. During my speech, I took the time to encourage the current students here to also invest in our school. Because we can’t keep growing if the school is neglected.”
“So it’s important that we all play our part and continue to do so, so the school will be around for the generations to come,” she added.
St Mary’s Senior High School is one of the prestigious girls’ institutions in Accra, which has been providing holistic education for girls for more than seven decades. The school has produced prominent people including the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, and the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, among others.
It is gearing up to celebrate its 75th anniversary with a series of events scheduled from October 2024 to February 2025. The grand finale, the Speech and Prize-Giving Day, will take place on February 22, 2025.
Among the highlights of the anniversary celebrations is a mental health talk, which will be the first event in October. This event aims to raise awareness about mental health issues and provide support to students and the wider community. The launch was themed: Empowering Minds, Shaping Future: 75 Years of Girl Child Education in Truth and Virtue.
There was fund-raising by individuals and year groups as well as the inauguration of the Seat of Wisdom Library for the school.