FIASEC celebrates 50th anniversary

Tarkwa (W/R), Nov. 28, GNA - Fiaseman Secondary School (FIASEC) climaxed its Golden Jubilee celebration with Speech and Prize-Giving Day ceremony at Tarkwa at the weekend.

The celebration was themed: "Fifty years of growth and development, challenges and hopes for the future."

The school, which was established in 1955 by the late Mr Jonathan Pra Kofi Ainoo, with 16 students and two teachers now has a population of 1,300 students, made up of 600 boys and 700 girls.

It began as a secretarial college and in January 1967, the name was changed to Royal Secondary Commercial School and in 1974 the school was formally absorbed into the public education system.

In 1977, the Board of Governors of the school, in consultation with Wassa Fiase Traditional Council agreed that the "Fiaseman" should be adopted as its name hence Fiaseman Secondary School (FIASEC). In an address read on his behalf by the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Madam Sophia Horner-Sam, President John Agyekum Kufuor said education of the child was of paramount concern to the government because it was through education that the right type of manpower resources needed for the accelerated development of the nation was produced.

President Kufuor said, as an indication of government's commitment to this policy, an amount of 65.4 billion cedis was allocated under the GETFund in the last couple of years for rehabilitation, renovation and expansion of schools, among others.

He said currently, 25 more senior secondary schools were to be considered for upgrading under the second phase of which three are in the Western Region in addition to four it benefit in the first phase.

The President appealed to all schools to be patient, while government takes time to address their needs one after the other. He said, while government plays her part through the provision of financial resources for the qualitative improvement in education, it is expected that the communities where the schools were located would equally be responsive to the needs of the school.

This, he said, was because the activities of the school cannot be divorced from the community which interest the school seeks to serve. The school and the community must therefore foster harmonious relationship to promote the total development of the school, adding, this could be done when Board of Governors, the parent-teacher association, the district assembly and the traditional authorities collaborate actively to pool resources for the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning in the school.

President Kufuor said FIASEC has produced many prominent old students who are serving in various capacities in different sectors of the economy and that should serve as a source of inspiration and strength to the current students who should equally learn hard in order to follow the footsteps of their predecessors.

Mr. Joseph Essien, Headmaster of FIASEC, said out of a total of 259 candidates presented for the 2004 Senior Secondary School Certificate of Examination (SSSCE), 151 representing 58.3 per cent qualified for admission into the university and other tertiary institutions.