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The Aggrey Memorial AME Zion School in Cape Coast has held its 80th anniversary celebration with a call on co-educational institutions not to leave the boys behind in efforts to empower girls.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Ms Cecilia Dapaah, who represented the President at the anniversary at the weekend said co-educational institutions in particular must work harder to build the confidence of both boys and girls to maximise their potential and contribution to national development.

It was on the theme, "80 years of co-education, Achievements, challenges and the way forward."

Don’t leave boys behind

Ms Dapaah said while encouraging the girls to go higher it was necessary to ensure that the boys were not left behind.

“We want both the boys and the girls to do well,” she stated.

She further urged the teachers to be innovative and creative and adopt new trends of teaching to train the students to be achievers.

No discrimination

Delivering his address, the guest speaker for the occasion, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said the school had products in very important facets all over the world.

“The time had come to remember the boys as we have been remembering the girls and pushing them forward.

The girls, therefore, have been doing well as the boys have been lagging behind,” he noted, adding that for a co-educational institution, discrimination on the basis of gender must not be practiced.

Monitoring report 2019

Prof. Ampiah stated that according to the global education monitoring report 2019 on building bridges for gender equality, Africa remained far from education parity while subject choice was also gender segregated.

He said, according to the report, just a quarter of those enrolled in engineering, manufacturing and construction and in ICT programmes were women.

In Ghana, he observed that the 2018 annual education sector analysis report, observed parities in education, saying more than one third of those taking the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) did not enter senior high school (SHS).

He said the World Bank report in 2017 indicated that from those coming from the deprived communities were about five to six times less likely to access senior high school.

Free SHS refreshing

Prof. Ampiah said it was, therefore, refreshing that there was the introduction of the free SHS policy in 2017 to bridge the disparities.

He urged the school to take stock and map out strategies for the way forward.

Inadequate accommodation

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Kate Annan Wilberforce, in her address, expressed worry about inadequate staff bungalows and dormitories.

“For 1,105 boarding boys we have 12 accommodation for male teachers and for 1,210 girls we have five female teachers with staff accommodation.

This is woefully inadequate,” she stated and called for more accommodation for teachers to help improve discipline in the school.

She commended the old students association for the support and appealed for even more to help the school achieve its goals of providing quality education in a conducive environment.

The President of the old students association, Dr Peter Amponsah-Mensah, said the association would continue to commit more to support the school to be a centre of academic excellence.

Students and staff who excelled in their various fields of endeavour were awarded.