Achimota - the dream and the reality

When we were given the theme for this speech day, my classmates and I began to wonder whose dream and whose reality we were going to speak about. Many have passed through our great school before us and many more will come after us. As the times are changing, so must we change with the times and therefore what I shall endeavour to do this afternoon is to describe what we believe Achimota was meant to be, contrast that against what we see our school to be now and then share our dream of what we hope that this great school should be in the future.

Achimota is an educational institution designed with the aim of providing for the education needs of the people of the Gold Coast, from Kindergarten to University, and was founded in Accra in 1927 as the Prince of Wales College by the Government of the Gold Coast. It was to provide an education and character training that would equip those who would attend it, to supply the leadership needs of the nation.

Background

Prior to the school being established, secondary education was limited to a few missionary schools. Higher Education opportunities were limited. Those who aspired to professional qualification had to leave the country to achieve their ambitions and this often involved lengthy stays in European countries in order for Africans to achieve the highest education qualifications.

The Governor of the Gold Coast at the time, Brigadier General Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, when he assumed duty in 1919, identified an urgent need for an accelerated programme of education that went beyond what the institutions in the country at the time could offer. He set up a commission to look into the education needs of the country and on the basis of their recommendations proposed a large residential campus based college where both boys and girls could receive a good education from Kindergarten to the University.

At the heart of Guggisberg's concern was the conviction that some of those educated to the highest qualifications under the prevailing system, relying as it did on long stays in Europe returned out of touch with their own people. He was also concerned that the system in the Gold Coast itself was insufficiently strong in the type of training that produced leaders. His vision for the college was therefore to address these shortcomings in the educational system as it was then.

The Vision

Guggisberg's broad vision, which was later influenced in its detailed development by Rev Alexander Garden Fraser and Dr Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, was to liberate the African of the Gold Coast through education.

He sought to do this by building an institution which would provide greater opportunities to those who wished to gain further education and form the mainstay of a rapidly developing nation, as the Gold Coast was then. As a result, when the College was finally built, the charge given to leaving students was, to “ ... go forth as living waters to a thirsty land ...”

The final vision for the College was expressed in "The Ideals for which the College stands".

Achimota stands for:

• The best use of the minds and bodies which God has given us

• An equal opportunity for girls and boys in education

• Respect for all that is true and of lasting value in the old African culture, beliefs and ways of life

• Willing, humble service of the educated for the uneducated

• Mutual understanding and cooperation between Christians of all denominations and the growth of that spirit in which the churches shall one day be united again

• Friendship, respect and cooperation between all races on equal terms

• The belief , on which all else rest, in Jesus Christ as the revelation for all time and all peoples of the love of God, and as the guide and pattern of our lives

Planning, Construction and Development of the College

Rev Alexander Garden Fraser was appointed the first Principal of the College with Dr Emman Kwegyir Aggrey as his Vice Principal. Together with Brigadier General Guggisberg, these persons became known as the Founding Fathers of Achimota.

Construction of the College started in 1924 with a Government Budgetary Grant of £600,000 and a subsequent annual allocation of £48,000. It was endowed with, amongst others, a swimming pool, extensive playing fields including a cricket oval, its own printing press and works department.

Throughout the whole of the planning, construction and later development stages, Guggisberg and the College received considerable support from a number of people from the Gold Coast including the Chiefs, Nana Sir Ofori Atta and the Fia Sri of Anloga, who Rev Fraser singled out for mention in his farewell speech.

A. How far along the route to realizing the dream did we go?

• Achimota was our nation’s first fully “self-sufficient” school

All the facilities for the comprehensive education of the new generation of African leader were provided – it was truly a city within a city. At the time of completion, nothing of its sort existed in Ghana and probably in Africa. It was set up for the total education of the individual:

MIND – arts, crafts, pure sciences, social sciences, etc

BODY – three dining halls, a boys & girls gym and the full spectrum of sports facilities including a swimming pool, squash courts, hockey pitches, basketball court, soccer fields and Ghana’s only cricket pavilion and oval.

SOUL – two chapels, an arboretum

The best teachers both expatriate and local, led by educationists of international repute such as the first principal Rev. Alexander G. Fraser and Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey the first Vice Principal.

The full range of the best teaching and learning resources, making the school a Mecca for those across the continent who sought to receive the best education available.

The results of this comprehensive system were immediate and remarkable. The generation of leaders that it produced included

• Kwame Nkrumah (former president of Ghana)
• Alhaji Sir Dauda Jawarra (first Head of State of The Gambia)
• Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwean President)
• Edward Akuffo-Addo (former president of Ghana)
• Kofi Abrefa Busia (former Prime Minister of Ghana)
• William Ofori-Atta (Ghanaian Independence Leader)
• Jerry Rawlings (former president of Ghana)
• John Atta Mills (former Vice President of Ghana)

Remarkably, during the 1st Parliament of the 2nd Republic of Ghana, 126 out of the 140 parliamentarians (representing 90%) were Alumni of Achimota School.

Indeed, so successful was the initiative that the University of Ghana, Legon was spawned via the transformation of Achimota into the University College of the Gold Coast. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology also traces its antecedents to the Engineering School of Achimota College.

B. A Fork in the Road

Generation after generation of remarkable and well-rounded individuals continued to be produced by this school – Ephraim Amu, K.B Asante, William Chapman-Nyaho, Philip Gbeho, Prof. Evans-Anfom, Kwame Pianim, Ken Ofori-Atta, Keli Gadzekpo, George Francois and Benjamin Owusu-Frimpong to name a few. From the 83 year group, Adelaide Ado-Fening who received an OBE for her work with the VSO, Comfort Ocran who with her husband Albert are the brains behind Combert Impressions and Legacy & Legacy, Dr Joel Bonaparte a neonatal & perinatal specialist, Dr Gordon Appiah one of the handful of Ghanaian neurosurgeons and Sigismund Dzeble who deserves a medal for his efforts at professionalizing the administration of the OAA.

The fortunes of the school have throughout the history of our nation, been linked to those of the country. It is moot whether the success of the Achimota experiment positively impacted on the development of the nation or the development of the nation occasioned the landmarks achieved by the school. Whilst the jury remains undecided on this, what requires no debate is that the lofty ideals which animated the vision and efforts of our founders were jettisoned as the nation run into a rough patch and then spiraled into decline. Yes, other schools suffered as well but the scale, magnificence and reputation of this school meant that the decline which it experienced was precipitous.

The effort and resources required to maintain the infrastructure and systems upon which the school stood could only be likened to the cleaning of the Aegean stables – a near impossibility and it was a sad chapter in the history of our school as its glory faded and its stature was dealt a number of serious blows. Many were those who assumed that the IDEA which was Achimota would be so respected and cherished by all Ghanaians and therefore it would be protected from the vagaries of the time; alas, these were not enough to halt the slide.

Yet, this very same long and proud heritage kept something going that allowed us to maintain our reputation for pre-eminence through the impoverished 80s. That was our time; that was when as young teens we struggled with the burden of the dreams of our parents who believed that they were depositing us in the Achimotan idyll of yore of which they were most proud.

Many refused or failed to see the decline in the fortunes of the school, preferring to maintain a rose-tinted perspective of their alma mater. It was indeed a strange and interesting time to be in Achimota. We pursued academic excellence but knew that the conditions were far from ideal. We could see Rev. Canon Ankrah, Mrs. Sey, Bob Waldman, A.Y Boafor (Zors), Mr. Frimpong, Mr. Yirenkyi Addo (Addo Ray), Mr. Kwami and Mr. Ken Kafui to name a few, were struggling to make the most of a worsening resource situation. We sought to hold our own on the sports fields but we could see that Mr. Sammy Ashie and his team were not used to teaching sporting disciplines with deteriorating facilities and equipment.

We went from getting issued a full set of school items from the matron’s office to having to start classes for a couple of hours on an empty stomach whilst she scurried around town looking for foodstuffs and provisions to make us breakfast (which was served at 10am). The swimming pool dried up, the taps stopped running, power outages were regular, Desbordes pies shrunk and chop boxes were “dry”. This mirrored the realities of the nation at the time.

Despite the very trying circumstances the school managed to maintain an impressive record of excellence.

It was around this time that education sector reforms began. The direction of the socialist philosophy prevalent at the time was to eliminate all allusions to elitism. All children irrespective of their background had the right to attend the best schools and even academic attainment was not to be a barrier to entry.

Whilst this is a laudable ideal in principle, its application overlooked the role and relevance of centers of excellence. In place of this, it proposed in effect, the dilution of standards of achievement down towards a lower, more attainable level, resulting in the scale tipping in favour of quantity over quality. There will be few who can argue that the nation as a whole is suffering from the hangover of that policy direction. Throughout our manpower supply chain the refrain is repeated, “we can’t find good people” and dare I say that this can be traced to the impact of such policies.

C. The Future

As we face the future, what will be the role and contribution of this great institution of ours? There are some key indicators of what our present and future requires of us as Akoras. In the future which we face, clear evidence exists that the only limiting factor to what a people or an individual can achieve is their desire to achieve. In other words, with the right knowledge, attitude and socialization, we can achieve anything that we want. What was unimaginable as recently as 20 years ago, a black man to be elected as President of the USA has occurred in our lifetime. But how many of these achievements have taken place on the African continent? The answer may lie in us recognizing the fact that Achimota was set up to lead the achievement of excellence and leadership on the African Continent and embracing the challenge that is implied by this fact.

We must go back and re-ignite the dream

We must re-discover pride in excellence

We must encourage achievement

We must seek to be the masterpiece that we were intended to be; an iconic model of what educational excellence must be – developing the whole human being in preparation for the lifelong pursuit of excellence

We have no choice; the only option remaining to us is to retake the commanding heights of academic excellence and ensure that we are truly the most reliable source of living waters; sending forth streams of resourceful, confident, creative and dynamic young Ghanaians to lead our nation into the First World.

To be global leaders in this century, we must have certain core attributes and values. As we share these attributes, we shall attempt to link them to President-elect Barack Obama to show how these attribute have enabled him attain the high office that he has been elected to. There could not have been a better example of what hard work, perseverance, self-belief and that ‘can-do’ spirit can result in. With your kind permission, I will end by proposing some key concepts that the generations of leaders – past, present & future – should identify and embrace as some of the implicit lessons that we learn (often unconsciously) from our Achimotan experience:-

1. Be open to new experiences – a successful leader should be open-minded in order to always challenge his or her favoured view and be willing to embrace multiple viewpoints in order to build bridges between peoples of different understanding & commitment (Peter Senge)

2. Be curious about the world – be curious and ask questions of the people around you

3. Be energetic and enthusiastic – you need to be excited about learning, not just in the classroom but from people and experiences that you have everyday.

4. Be willing to listen and learn – do we listen as much as we talk? Remember that we have been given 2 ears but 1 mouth

5. Be able to adapt rapidly to change – change is constant. The ability to adapt rapidly to change is what determines your ability to survive the times.

6. Be willing to ask the right questions – the better the enquiry, the better the results that are generated

7. Be innovative and creative – nothing kills thriving societies more than being static while the rest of the world is changing - maintaining the status quo.

8. Be Self-assured – you must have confidence in yourself to inspire confidence in others.

9. Be Results oriented – what goals have you set, when will you achieve them, how will you achieve them? These are issues that Achimotans who aspire to be leaders must always have as a guiding principle

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the best of ships laden with all the latest gadgets which do not have rudders will wander about aimlessly at sea until eventually they run aground. In addition to living these lessons that we have learned during our time at Achimota, the products of our dear school must also be guided by certain core values

Integrity, Honesty, Humility, Excellence, Respect, Teamwork

and can we do it? Achimota says: we have no choice………… YES WE CAN!!!!!

THANK YOU.

 Carol Annang