St Mary's Senior High Supports girls' education

Published in the Daily Graphic on 26/01/10, pg 11

Article: Matilda Attram
SIXTY years after its establishment, the St Mary’s Senior High School in Accra is recognised as one of the female educational institutions that has trained a number of women who find themselves in responsible positions and different sectors of the country’s developmental processes.
In recognition of the fact that effective girl child education creates a better opportunity for women to partake in the decision making process of the country, a group of Catholic Sisters known as the ‘Sister Servant of the Holy Spirit’ (SSPS), thought it wise to establish a collage for young girls at Korle-Gono in Accra in 1950 to benefit women from communities where most parents found it difficult to access education.
The college, which later became the St Mary’s Girls’ Secondary School, now the St Mary’s Senior High School, started with only 10 students who were studying Dressmaking, Home Economics, Mathematics and English Language.
Over the years the school, with a current student population of 765 has trained more than 250,000 students offering Home Economics, Mathematics, English Language, General Arts, Science and Visual Arts.
As part of the activities slated for its 60th anniversary celebrations the management, staff and old students of the St Mary’s Senior High School (MERRIES) over the weekend organised a float through some principal streets of Accra to commemorate the achievements of the school, to honour the good work of the founding mothers and to encourage the young generation to take education seriously.
The anniversary was on the theme “6O Years of Progressive and Holistic Girls’ Education: The Challenges of the 21st Century”.
The current Headmistress of the school, Ms Doris Ama Bramson emphasised the need to encourage girl child education as an important element to national development.
She said empowering women with knowledge through education was a major key to local and national development and the country needed to create the necessary environment to promote girl-child education.
“The initial curriculum for training girls in the olden days have changed, its time for the us to encourage our young ones in education and engage them in the development activities of the country”, she said.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the school’s academics performance, Ms Bramson pointed out that the school was noted among the best second cycle schools in the country and that had been one of its great achievement.
She added that “The vision for setting up the school is being achieved. Girls trained up here over the years have all been responsible in their various positions out there and that has been consistent since the establishment of the school”.
She however mentioned land constraints and a computer laboratory that lacked equipment, as some of the challenges facing the school which needed to be considered for support.
Ms Bramson commended the Government, Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) members of the school, staff, and old students for their support and encouraged current students to take their academic work seriously.
The National President of St Mary’s Old Students Association (SMOGA), Mrs Grace Amarteifio, also expressed the need to instil discipline in students and called on parents to get involved in educating their children, especially girls by support and supervising them.
Some current students also expressed their joy to be part of the celebration and used the opportunity to appeal to the Government and educational stakeholders to consider the views of students when taking decisions concerning their welfare.
Other activities marking the anniversary include homecoming of old students, candle light possession and bonfire to be climaxed with a speech and prize giving day on the 6th of February this year.