(Ash)-Ghana, Nov. 01, GNA – Students in Senior High Schools (SHS) have been urged to study hard and strive for moral and academic excellence for the benefit of the nation.
They should justify the huge investment being made by the government through the free SHS policy to develop their career and skills potentials for their own good and that of the nation.
Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, former Chairman of the National Peace Council, who made the call, said part of the economic woes facing the nation presently, could be attributed to the huge resources invested in the implementation of the free SHS policy in the last five years.
It was, therefore, important for the beneficiaries of the policy to strive for moral, academic and professional competencies to enable them actively participate in the national transformation agenda.
Most Rev. Prof. Asante, also a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, made the call at the launch of the 83rd anniversary celebration of the Osei Tutu SHS, at Akropong, near Nkawie in the Ashanti Region.
It was under the theme, “Discipline, a panacea for academic and moral excellence”.
Most Rev. Asante stressed the need for the youth to be disciplined in whatever they did since that was a cardinal tool for realising their goals in life.
According to the school authorities, the theme was carefully chosen given the challenges and peer pressure the youth faced in contemporary times when most societal norms and principles were losing their value.
The Osei Tutu SHS, formerly a teacher training institution, which was established by the Methodist Church, is one of the oldest male-dominated schools in the Ashanti region.
It was designed to inculcate the Methodist principles into the students in the course of their training, thereby, raising a generation of responsible, God-fearing, hardworking and patriotic citizens for the nation.
“Students who pass through the Methodist school system are expected to demonstrate a high sense of discipline and respect for authority at all times,” the Most Rev. Prof. Asante told the students.
To this end, he cautioned the students to stay off any form of notoriety that could dent the school’s image and the noble purpose for which it was established.
“You should live by the values for which Osei Tutu SHS was established,” he advised, and be good ambassadors of the school”, he emphasised.
Dr Asare Yeboah, Headmaster of the School, recounted the successes chalked by the institution since its establishment, citing the critical role being played by some past students in the nation’s development processes.
He lauded members of the ‘1981 Year Group’ for constructing a clinic for their alma mater, saying the gesture should be emulated by the other Year Groups.
Mr William Kusi, a legal practitioner and old student, in a motivational speech, praised the founding fathers of the school for their vision.
Dr Stephen Okyere-Boateng, Deputy Registrar, Sunyani Technical University, and an old student of the school, speaking on the theme, indicated that indiscipline in whatever form could ruin the career development of a promising student.
He, therefore, entreated the students to be respectful and law-abiding while managing their time in school prudently in order to achieve their goals in life.
