Rev. Dr Devine Amattey - Modern Mathematics Pioneer
He was one of the few lucky ones chosen to be trained in the teaching of Modern Mathematics in the country. This was when he was picked alongside 16 other teachers for an intensive training programme at the University of Ghana, Legon.
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At the university, Devine Amattey and his colleagues were taken through various aspects of the course, both practical and theory, to give them the requisite knowledge they would need not only to teach children but also to train other teachers in Modern Mathematics.
“So we were some of the foundation members who started teaching Modern Mathematics in the country. We were involved in developing the textbooks and were used as resource persons to teach Modern Mathematics, therefore, even during holidays we worked,” he told the Junior Graphic.
Relating his childhood years to this reporter, Mr Amattey said he lost his father at age 10 but worked hard to achieve his dream of becoming an academician and a Minister of the Gospel.
He said he assisted his mother in her trading activities to raise money to cater for the family and their educational needs.
During that time, Young Amattey’s duty was to fetch water for the family when he returned from school and then he had to assist his mother with the household chores.
He said he and his siblings would walk to the riverside to fetch water for household chores.
“We swept and carted firewood on weekends. Sometimes we competed to see how large each person’s firewood was. I think this was really good for us because it made us learn how to work hard to support the family.”
Born at Kpong in the Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region, Young Amattey began schooling at the United Primary School, an amalgamation of the Presbyterian and Methodist schools at Kpong. He later continued to the Methodist Middle School after which he sat and passed the Common Entrance Examination and proceeded to the Labone Secondary School for his second-cycle education.
“I spent only two years in secondary school because there was a strike at the secondary school and I could not continue my secondary education,” he said.
Following the strike, he had to truncate his secondary education and sat for the training college entrance examination. He passed and went to the Methodist Training College at Aburi at age 17.
At the training college, he was the Chapel Steward for the college in the final year. “So right from college, they started calling me Osofo,” he said.
After teaching for some time, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and Religion and followed it up with a Master of Arts degree in Education and Religion at the Luther Price University in the US, through a distance learning programme between 1986 and 1992.
Desirous of attaining higher education, he pursued a PhD programme in Education, Theology and Missions.
When he came to Ghana after his studies in the United Kingdom, he taught for three years at the West Africa Secondary School (WASS).
Rev Amattey then had an invitation from the Gospel Faith Mission in Nigeria to work as a lecturer and an evangelist.
Working life
He was also the Principal of the Gospel Bible College, Ibadan, Nigeria, where pastors were trained.
He rose through the ranks and became the principal of the church’s bible school, and later came to Ghana in 1986 to establish the All For Christ Mission Church.
Later he was appointed Ghana’s representative for Professionals in Mission Worldwide
Subsequently, he started the Small Book Project to encourage children and adults to read.
Rev. Amattey is married with three children.
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