Awudome Senior High School @ 60

The Swahili proverb, “Haijalishi mwendo wako wa polepole ilhali tu usisimame,” meaning, it doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop, tells a story about the Awudome Senior High School at Tsito Awudome, in the Volta Region.

It didn’t start with a bang, but with the determination of its forebears, the school continued to grow.  On April 22, 2024, the school that started with about 60 students in 1963 as a community day and boarding school, established by the Tsito Native Teachers’ Association (TNTA), will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The headmaster, teachers, old students and current students will use the opportunity to pay tribute to those teachers with vision who gave birth to the school and the American educationist, Mr William Harper Wheeler, who served as the first headmaster. 

Starting as a community school, it has opened up and now has a student population of 2,477. This is made up of 1,199 boys and 1278 girls, with a teaching staff of 143 and 55 non-teaching as of the 2022/2023 academic year.

The school offers six programmes, namely General Arts, General Science, Home Economics, Visual Arts, Business and Agricultural Science. It has a modern administration block, four well-equipped Information Communication Technology (ICT) laboratories and a spacious arena for co-curricular activities.

The school can also boast an Audio-Visual Learning Centre and an Electronic Learning Management Support system to enhance teaching and learning. These innovative interventions put in place has yielded positive results with about 90 per cent of the 2022 WASSCE graduates qualifying for further studies.

Like most second-cycle schools in the country, the school can pride itself on prominent old students who are contributing their quota to the development of the nation and abroad.

Prominent old students

Some prominent old students include Mr Vuley Senah, the General Manager of DDP Outdoor Limited, Mr Ernest Norgbey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ashiaman Constituency and Prof. Leonard Kofitse Amekudzi, the Provost of the College of Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

 It can also boast very senior officers working with the various security services, medical officers, scientists, as well as those who have found their way into the public and civil service, including Dr Evans Dzikum, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Defence.

In the media space, old students have made their marks and this includes Mr Kafui Gati, a former senior journalist with the Ghanaian Times and the late Setorwu Gagakuma, who for a long time was the Ghana Correspondent for many international media organisations.

Achievements

The school has excelled in many fields including the consistent appearance at the National Science and Mathematics Quiz competition (NSMQ), the district champions for the 2023 inter-school debate competition and the overall champions for the 2023 inter-school sports and games competition.

Challenges

Despite its modest successes, there are a few things the school needs to achieve more. For now, it is in dire need of an assemble hall to accommodate 3,000, which is the number of students the school envisages to admit.

For the school to be able to function properly, it needs a fully furnished 18-unit classroom block, a six hundred-bed capacity dormitory each for boys and girls, a three-storey 12-unit staff flat, 1,200 classroom tables and chairs, 1,000 bunk beds, thirty-five-seater WC facility for boys and girls and the completion of a fence wall project to protect the school from encroachers. The school also needs a 66-seater bus and a pickup.

Way forward

As its anthem directs, ‘Arise and Shine,’  the Awudome Senior High School is ready to rise to the opportunity to shine and thereby create the opportunity for students to develop their skills in cognitive, social, emotional, speech and language, as well as fine motor skill development and help students live in truth, love and responsibility according to its motto.

Awusco 60th Anniversary Planning Committee