Accra Academy is the secondary school I went to in Ghana. I met many wonderful schoolmates and teachers there. The level of education was high, and the school was well kept up. But over the years, Accra Academy has had some very mixed fortunes, some of them not so good. In general it has not been a well-endowed school and most of its funding is now governmental, which as one would expect is spread thin. So for example, there has been the addition of a new Business block of classrooms and an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) block, but at the same time, there are not enough computers in the ICT course (they need about 15 more).
The library has no computers at all and is virtually unchanged since I left, dusty, miserable and practically useless.
One new government-supported dormitory hall is going up, but an alumnus-funded hall has been stalled over the last three years because of lack of funding. The student population is now about 1700, give or take - more than twice as many students as when I was there, and the present 2 halls are massively overcrowded with inadequate toilet facilities.
I had been asked to address the student body on Friday, February 8th. I had imagined giving the address in the assembly hall, using a microphone. Boy, was I wrong. The Assembly Hall is at the moment a mess while it’s being used as a clearing house for old books that have been in storage. The students buy anything that interests them at the cost of a Cedi (almost exactly one U.S. dollar).
So assembly was called outside in the open air in front of the steps of the school with the playing field as a backdrop. Like teenagers all over the world, they found it difficult to assemble at more than the usual slouching pace. “Come on, come on!” the assistant headmaster yelled, “we don’t have all morning. Hurry up!”
At any rate I soon found myself facing 1500 odd students and wondering how on earth my voice was going to carry to the back rows. I had prepared a speech the night before but would not be using any notes. It’s distracting and off-putting to the audience.
The assistant headmaster stood on one of the side slabs along the steps and introduced me with a story that had made me more famous than I knew: When I was in my final year at Accra Academy, a royal python was found coiled up in the desk of one of the first-year students (the snake likes cool, dark spaces). The senior biology students knew it was harmless and took it to the biology lab, but the biology teacher said he didn’t have suitable food (primarily live mice) for the reptile, so it was decided to release it into some brush nearby. Somehow the python found its way back onto the main road of the school, and a group of junior students, unaware that the snake was harmless, began to stone it.
At the time I was in Chemistry class, which looks out onto the road, and when I saw the defenseless creature being stoned, I was furious. I cannot stand to see animals or children abused. So I charged out of Chemistry class, and judging from the way the story is told to this day, I must have gone pretty ballistic on the students as I told them to back off. I then picked up the python, managed to find a canvas sack to put it in, and kept it in my car under the shade until the end of classes, after which I took it to the Zoology Department at the University of Ghana, where the snake expert was only to happy to house it.
So this story has been told repeatedly since my departure, and indeed it is also one of my favorites, but I had no idea how well it was remembered. The other item of introduction the asst. head mentioned was that I was one of only about 3 students who drove to school, which led to a raucous student response somewhere between cheer and goodnatured cat-call.
In my address, I talked a little about my life path from Accra Academy to where I am now, speaking within the theme of grabbing opportunities as they appear, and in particular education is one such opportunity. I used some football (soccer) analogies as well, thinking it appropriate in the context of the present soccer Africa Cup of Nations. I think my voice carried quite well to the back. The students listened attentively except during the few jokes I cracked when they were very interactive in the typical student fashion. They’re the same all over the world. After that I went down and shook some hands in the front and middle rows, with many of the students clamoring to shake my hand and calling out in protest if I missed anyone. I felt like a politician!
One of the teachers then took me around the school grounds and I saw firsthand some of the problems I mentioned above. Then I met with the headmaster and we discussed some of the needs of the school. The list is so long it is difficult to know where to start, but it is both sad and inspiring how they are making do with the little they have and with the number of students they have to deal with. It is true there’s an Accra Academician spirit. You love the school no matter what.
In the evening, a really nice reception was held for me, and I met some of my classmates, all of whom are doing well: doctors, dentists, engineers and teachers. All the usual speeches were made, but I am keenly cognizant that words are useless if they are not made into actions. An interesting aside was that it was my mother, who also attended the reception, who was responsible for my entry into Accra Academy. I had not been happy at the first school I had gone to in my first year, so she arranged for me to make the move to Accra Academy, after considerable arm-twisting and persuasion of the then headmaster.
Plate 1. Front courtyard of Accra Academy. The fountain
pool with its lilies stopped working long ago. The distinctive
red tile that was used on the roofs when I attended the school have been
replaced with cheaper and nondescript materials.
Accra Academy is a senior high school. Students enter
at age 15, preceded by 3 years of junior high, and go
directly into science, arts or business tracks.
Plate 2. Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) block. ICT is a compulsory course for all
senior high schools, yet Accra Academy does not
have enough computers for a full ICT class.
Plate 3. Exterior of one of the overcrowded dorms
Plate 4. Inside the dorm. See what I mean?
Plate 5. View of the playing field, where I infamously
ducked a soccer ball while playing in a match instead of
heading it. My reasoning? This skull contains my
brain and is not designed to bounce round
objects off its surface.
Plate 6. The assembly hall, closed for the moment
because it’s being used as a clearing house for old
books.
Plate 7. A mural painted by an alumnus, based on
Ghanaian proverbial stages of life, childhood and
parenting.
Plate 8. Yes, pigs. Part of the Animal Agriculture
course. Students taking this course learn pig and chicken
farming and the animals also bring in some income to
the school. Pigs are prolific. Up to 14 piglets per litter,
weaning is at 3 months and the sow is ready to conceive
again. Only one male is needed to “service” several females,
and in one day he can perform multiple times for 2 hours
each episode. Good grief. I have a new respect for pigs.
Plate 9. And here are the chickens. So many eggs
the school is having a hard time keeping up.
Plate 10. View of the science block, outside of which
I once rescued a Royal Python from certain annihilation
by its most common natural enemy, man - in this case
first-year students who didn’t know the poor thing was
harmless. The science block still has the trademark
red tile roof.
Plate 11. New dormitory hall under construction with
government funds.
Plate 12. Dormitory hall started by one of the alumni
year groups but stalled in 2005 because of insufficient
funds. It is one of the many school projects awaiting rescue, and the
alumni are the only hope. The government will not
complete a building started with private funds.
Plate 13. The boys of Physics class
Plate 14. Getting more ebullient by the minute,
they wouldn’t let me leave without taking
one more.
Plate 15. Okay, just one more. I know I’m a welcome
distraction, but you rascals really need to get back to work.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:27 am Congratulation, congratulation, congratulations
April 30th, 2008 at 6:03 am I can’t deny that I really enjoyed reading your work—pausing from time to time to laugh at some remarks you made. The admiration I had for your efforts was invariably equivalent to the seriousness with which I considered your message. I was in a very happy mood the day I came across your work over the internet. I quickly scrolled down the web page and at the bottom posted three congratulatory compliments without reading the report. The look of the whole thing immediately put in my mind that this is one serious person somewhere who in spite of so many daily life influences is still mindful of the Accra Academy. You are a complete and dedicated academician. I was very busy at the time of coming across your report and decided to save the webpage and read it later on the very day—Which I did. I was however expecting the long list of problems the head master made mention of, regardless of that I admit that you have done very well to make such news available. This is good work and I would personally make it available to as many alumni as possible as well as hyperlink the sites address to some other sites. While I was in the Accra Academy I really didn’t partake in active sports, and not for any particularly good reason to, I was therefore very sad and embarrassed with myself when I decided to look into the performance of Accra Academy in the 28th ANNUAL ZONAL AND SUPERZONAL ATHLETICS COMPETITION. I tell you solemnly, if I were still a student in the Accra Academy I would certainly devoted 60% of my time in school to active spots. I think there should be a board somewhere in the school where the students can go to view the schools performance in the zonals and super-zonals games if it is not already in place. I am sure had there been such a thing when I was still in school, I would certainly have contributed successful in a sports——wait a minutes not all excuses are for losers. I friend of mine once said “whenever something goes wrong, apportion blame”. This is just by the way I am not reiterating this statement, please. I must reemphasize that I am impressed with your work particularly because it seems to be the first of its kind I have come across. May be some day I would walk the fine line that you have walked, hopeful by that time, having to report fewer or no problems concerning the school. However I would rather doubt that the assistant head master would recount good stories about me unless of cause he has forgotten that back in school I was if not the only one, one of few students who faced the Disciplinary committee of the school with a serious allegations levelled by a head of department and in the end walking away scot free. —you see in the end I was right, but it didn’t go down well with the assistant head and I don’t take pride in what happen either.