No justification for closure of Bright SHS – Old students

Some old students of Bright Senior High School have downplayed calls by the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council for the closure of the school.

The demand by the Council had been “provoked by the incident of examination fraud of grave significance in direct relation to the assault of Mr. Gyan Mensah and Damolie Emmanuel Pacome, an official of the West African Examination Council and a reporter or the Daily Graphic respectively in their lawful duties to insist on a fair conduct of WASSCE examination.”

In a statement signed by the State’s secretary, D.M Ofori-Atta and copied to the Ghana Education Service and the Education Ministry, the Council said, its demands are being backed by “His Majesty Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin”

Although in a counter-statement by the secretary of the Old students Association, condemned the acts, it, however, disagreed with the calls for the closure of the school.

“The old students of Bright Senior High School condemn the act of students causing damage and assaults on West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) officials and a journalist. We say, such actions by the students were terribly demeaning and uncalled for."

"We are therefore using this as enough grounds to apologize to the general public especially, the Ghana Education Service and the West African Examination Council on the daft conducts of the students and with much assurance that, such a disturbing behaviour would not see the light again in the school.

“It is for this reason, we want to make the point that, the Akyem- Abuakwa Traditional Council cannot use the unfortunate and really disturbing incident as a perfect ground to justify their demand for the closure of Bright SHS.”

Below is the full statement;

RESPONSE TO THE AKYEM-ABUAKWA TRADITIONAL COUNCIL ON THE CLOSURE OF BRIGHT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, AKYEM KUKURANTUMI

The old students of Bright Senior High School condemn the act of students causing damage and assaults on West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) officials and a journalist. We say, such actions by the students were terribly demeaning and uncalled for.

We are therefore using this as enough grounds to apologize to the general public especially, the Ghana Education Service and the West African Examination Council on the daft conducts of the students and with much assurance that, such a disturbing behaviour would not see the light again in the school.

It is for this reason, we want to make the point that, the Akyem- Abuakwa Traditional Council cannot use the unfortunate and really disturbing incident as a perfect ground to justify their demand for the closure of Bright SHS.

The Traditional Council in their communique stated on 10th August, 2020 emphatically that, “it has become evident that 90 percent of graduands of Bright Senior High School drop out of public universities in their first year due to their inability to meet the intellectual and academic demands of tertiary institutions”, which we the old students’ association strongly disagree.

This statement made by the Traditional Council has no evidential backings and we believe are mere accusations and expression of opinions.

To put forth our stance, there is no justification for the statement made by the AkyemAbuakwa Traditional Council.

In point of fact, Bright senior high school has graduands from various tertiary institutions in the country and across the world respectively. We the old students are in the most prestigious universities in and across the country, reading the toughest courses in these institutions and yet, we are all excelling.

Talk of those studying in China, Russia, United States of America, just to mention, but a few. We would want to also make it clear that, studying at the tertiary level is to a greater extent different compared, to the other levels of education.

It’s factual that, students are not compelled nor mandated by any means to learn in the tertiary level hence the sole decision of the student to learn or not.

To another statement made by the Traditional council thus, “I am directed to express publicly that the exam results from the rogue Bright SHS are falsified’’, is also a well-structured statement carefully constructed to throw hot dust into our eyes. The statement has no substantial documents to support it on the tangent it wants to go.

If they would want to come hard on this statement again, then they would have to answer the question: how possibly could students from Bright SHS made it through the entrance examinations and interviews which certain courses in the tertiary level like medicine, nursing amongst others demand before admissions are granted? If their claims of ‘falsified results’ could stand unshakingly, then their answer must be unyieldingly solid to flaw our stance.

So again, we the Old Students of the reputable Bright senior high school want to make it clear to the general public that the statement made by Akyem-Abuakwa Traditional Council is a sheer grammatical construction, hence need not to be considered.

Signed by:

Doku Edmund Koranteng

Secretary