ON SATURDAY, 19TH NOVEMBER, 2011 AT 9.30AM

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1 SPEECH DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM OTOO ELLIS, VICE- CHANCELLOR OF KNUST AS GUEST SPEAKER TO THE 34 TH ANNIVERSARY AND 2 ND SPEECH AND PRIZE-GIVING DAY OF SIMMS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ON THE THEME ACHIEVING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS ON SATURDAY, 19 TH NOVEMBER, 2011 AT 9.30AM Chairman Honourable District Chief Executive District Director of Education Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors Headmistress and Staff Nananom Parents and Teachers Old Boys and Girls Distinguished Invited Guests Members of the Press Students Ladies and Gentlemen I bring you warm greetings from staff and students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and to say that I am very happy to join you in 1

2 celebrating the joy of this occasion of your School s 34 th anniversary and speech and prize-giving day. Mr. Chairman, I would want to commend the Chairman and Members of the Board of Governors, the Headmistress, Teachers, Parents, Old Students, Staff and Students of this School for the maintenance of a very nice and clean school environment. I have been impressed with the level of cleanliness of your School s surroundings. Secondly, please accept my congratulations for the various academic successes achieved thus far. As an administrator in a tertiary institution, I am fully aware of some of the various challenges you are confronted with on a daily basis in your attempt to train the nation s youth into responsible adulthood. I would also like to give special commendations to all the teachers of this school. Being a teacher myself, I know that a teacher must necessarily and at all times be patient, must inspire, must develop talent, kindle interest and help in moulding the character of the students you teach. My fellow dear teachers, I salute you all for the wonderful job you are doing for Simms Senior High School, in particular and mother Ghana as a whole. 2

3 On the occasion of your School s 34 th anniversary, I congratulate all stakeholders of the School for their effort in nurturing the School from its formative years to its present state. My special appreciation goes to all past and present Headmasters/Headmistresses, teachers and staff. Without your sense of dedication, selflessness, professionalism and initiative, Simms would not have been what it is today. Through your effort, you have helped in shaping many brains and, thereby, brought meaning and purpose to many lives. Mr. Chairman, there is little doubt today about the fact that our nation s quest to develop and remain truly independent basically depends on education. The quality of the human resource base of every country is undoubtedly one of the most valued and important resources through which that country can accelerate development and achieve competitive advantage in this global world of ours that is characterised by competition, information communication technology and high level research, among others. Education fine tunes students creativity, their level of insight, and their analytical skills to issues and situations. Education generally acquaints students 3

4 with unique ideas and stimulates their curiosity. This provides students with opportunities for personal enrichment and better future careers. In our quest to educate and achieve academic excellence, there are several stakeholders who have various roles to play without which the quality of our education would be greatly challenged. In this direction, I would want to use a few minutes to address some of the roles identifiable stakeholders have to play in order for us to achieve academic excellence. The first stakeholder I would want to talk about in our quest to achieve academic excellence is the parent/guardian. As parents and guardians, we have a primary responsibility to provide decent accommodation, a study area or room for the child and provide them with balanced diet for their proper physical and mental growth. Parents also have a role in planning the educational programme or course a ward should study in school with the assistance of an educational counsellor. Parents again have a role in guiding their ward(s) into appropriate educational 4

5 institutions, taking the financial commitments and following up on their monitoring and assessment with their teachers and facilitators to make the child independent and self sufficient. As guardians, we also need to inculcate good values and develop a sound moral character in the child. Parents should also have time to listen and to discuss with their children, their problems and keep watch on their activities. From this, we can see clearly that there is a lot expected of us as parents/guardians. In a similar dimension, the role of a teacher in achieving academic excellence is profound and multi-faceted. The teacher is an academic, a character trainer, caregiver, a role model or mentor and a leader, among many others. The teacher has a role to play as a source of credible and up-to-date knowledge, has a role about the moral discipline and upbringing of students, should serve as a motivator or facilitator, must be a counsellor/psychologist to be able to decipher the problems of students and offer solutions, monitoring and facilitation of teaching and learning processes and other extracurricular activities that students get involved 5

6 in. Teachers also bear the responsibility of teaching and serving as source of knowledge to students. From this, it is evident that the role of the teacher in achieving quality education cannot be short changed and any compromise on the teacher s part can derail any quality education system. Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, another important stakeholder I would want to identify in our quest to achieve academic excellence is the Headmaster or Headmistress. No scheme of educational reconstruction will produce the desired result, unless it is administered with vision and efficiency. The person who plans with vision and executes with responsibility is the headmaster or headmistress. In fact, it has been said in some quarters that the school is a lengthened shadow of its headmaster or headmistress. Everything in the school such as books, buildings, furniture, laboratory and equipment, students and staff are managed by the headmaster or headmistress. In addition to this managerial role, the headmaster or headmistress is traditionally known to be a supervisor of both 6

7 teaching and non-teaching staff. S/he is tasked with enforcing school disciplinary roles, codes of ethics and preventing potential safety violations. S/he has a role to manage the dayto-day operations of the school, co-ordinate with the school s governing board, seek and secure funding for school projects, speak on behalf of the school and give strategic direction to the school generally. The headmaster or headmistress is directly responsible for the implementation of educational policy and in our quest to achieve academic excellence, the headmaster or headmistress role should not be downplayed in any way. This in short explains why the headmaster or headmistress should be involved in the process right from the beginning (admission) to the end i.e. till the student leaves the school. The other stakeholder of major importance in this our enterprise is the Government. We all know that, the overall strategic direction of our country s educational system reflects the vision of the prevailing government, vis-à-vis our development aspirations. In our setting, the government has a huge and an unparallel role to play towards quality education. 7

8 Government has a role to provide education policy and direction, build and maintain educational infrastructure, remunerate educational workers including teachers, train educational workers, maintain a balance between the poor and the privileged in society and provide teaching and learning materials. The Government also has the responsibility to see to the provision and proper maintenance of school infrastructure that has the capacity to provide a conducive environment for teaching and learning. In fact, the role of the Government in ensuring that we have quality education for national development is inexhaustive and that explains why the Government is blamed for every problem at the educational sector. Even as we highlight the critical role of Government, we also need to appreciate the needed contribution of the business community sometimes referred to as the private sector. Business as part of their social and community responsibility should contribute in cash and in kind to the building of these 8

9 schools since in the long run, they are the end users of the products. This is even more important for businesses within the catchment area of the school. The alumni of every school must also always learn to pay back for what they received from their alma mater. The success and popularity of every school apart from all other factors depends on the quality of their alumni and the performance of the school. Therefore, the alumni of this School must make it one of their responsibilities to support the activities and growth of Simms Senior High School, their alma mater. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the last stakeholder I would want to mention here is the student who is at the receiving end of the entire process. A student must of necessity learn, do class assignments, research, do home-work, write examinations, must attend lectures or classes and participate in class activities fully, keep notes of lectures for reference purposes, embrace and fully participate in well defined extra-curricular activities, show courtesy and obey school regulations aimed at propelling them to become 9

10 responsible citizens in the future. The student, therefore, ought to be studios and discipline. As I have said earlier, students reflect the entire educational system as they are the end products. In view of this, the quality or otherwise of the entire educational system is mirrored by the attitude, behaviour and performance of students or graduates. It is in view of this that policy makers must be conscious of the impact any educational reform has on the future of participants. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, it is my considered view that, success in any educational system is the result of good partnership between all stakeholders such as teachers, students, the government, civil society and parents/guardians. It is, therefore, imperative that all stakeholders will identify and play their respective roles very well so that the standards of our educational system can improve for the better. Finally, I would want to once more congratulate the headmistress, teaching and non-teaching staff for their effort in 10

11 shaping the future of these young ones. It is my hope that you will commit yourselves to every good effort to better the fortunes of Simms Senior High School, named after one of Ghana s illustrious sons. I thank you all for your kind audience. 11