KB Asante: Voice From Afar column

W.E.F. Ward the historian was impressed by the yearning for knowledge of the people of this country. In his last book, "My Africa", he recalled his surprise at the number of societies that invited him to lecture on various topics.

He had arrived with the vanguard of the future staff of Achimota College and the yearning for knowledge inspired his scholarship into the past of the people and their aspirations.

The knowledge gained reinforced the view of the Founding Fathers of Achimota, that the aim was not to establish a Rugby School or Winchester in Africa, but to fuse the best elements of an indigenous culture into a global system which would promote unfettered progress in a shrinking world.

 Our forebears valued learning and, therefore, achieved a lot in spite of the challenges of the formal educational system. 

Government schools were few and the country is greatly indebted to educational institutions established by the churches or missions with the active support of their members. Their fervour in building education was promoted by great nationalists such as J. Kitson-Mills who built Accra Royal School and R.M. Akwei who established the Gold Coast National School.

 As far as secondary schools are concerned, the missions were in the field long before the government built Achimota College.  Achimota achieved much with generous government financial support and minimum control.

But to fully understand the history of education in Ghana and chart the way forward, we should try and understand how Mfantsipim, Adisadel and the Cape Coast secondary schools contributed so much to education in Ghana.

The teachers in these schools were not formally trained as they are now. The best students were persuaded to stay and teach. The people respected the teachers, and the learned secondary school teachers were generally held in high esteem.

 O'Reilly Educational Institute, now O'Reilly High School, and Accra High School, both established by Sierra Leonean educationists, were run on lines similar to the Cape Coast secondary schools. They supplied the need for secondary education to those in Accra who could not afford the expense of Cape Coast schooling.

In more recent times, K. G.  Konuah established Accra Academy which has been an outstanding success. When Justice Mills-Odoi died and Accra Academy students assembled to pay their respects at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, I realised how much Accra Academy has contributed to education in Ghana.

 The scarcity of schools in former days was in a way compensated for by the passion for education. Not only did parents sacrifice a lot to educate their children, but students tried to pursue high education by the means available. Many undertook correspondence courses with Wolsely Hall, University Correspondence College, Rapid Results College and others in England.

Elementary school teachers tried to improve themselves by using such courses to obtain the London Matriculation Certificate not only as an end in itself, but as an avenue for university studies. Nathan Quao, who became the Head of the Civil Service, took his B.A. Degree in English while teaching at Accra Academy, while Dr Ackah, the Vice Chancellor of Cape Coast University, obtained his Ph.D by private study.

 Balme, who established the University College of the Gold Coast (now University of Ghana),believed that there would not be enough qualified students to begin the college. He, therefore, tried to stop Achimota College from continuing with its High School Certificate courses so that such students could enrol at the university.

 Achimota refused the suggestion and advertisements were made for qualified students. To the surprise of many, there were more qualified applicants than expected.  Many elementary school teachers had successfully obtained the London Matriculation Certificate by private studies or correspondence courses.

 Today, we have distant learning courses organised as part of the education system. We have, therefore, made progress. But there is an important difference. Those who took the equivalent of distant learning courses in