The Aggrey Memorial A.M.E Zion Senior High School in Cape Coast has launched its year-long 85th anniversary and an accompanying logo, with a call for deeper collaborations among stakeholders to advance the cause of quality education.

Rita Ohene-Sarfo, Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Roads and Highways and alumna of the school called on leaders in the education space to leverage the potential of students, alumni and parents to achieve quality education.

The anniversary will celebrate the school’s achievements over the past eight and a half decades and explore new paths for greater impact.

Activities for the celebration have, therefore, commenced in earnest and are expected to be climaxed with a grand durbar on Saturday, March 08, 2025, on the school’s premises.

It is on the theme: “Building on 85 years of quality education: The role of stakeholders.”

The global body of the Aggrey Memorial Old Students’ Association (AMOSA Global) spearheaded the scenic and well-attended launch of the anniversary where substantial funds were raised to support their alma mater.

Mrs Ohene Sarfoh argued that because students were the primary stakeholders in their own education, there was a need to involve them in what and how they were taught.

She observed that students were never engaged in the review of educational programmes and modifications to teaching approaches, stressing that no modalities had been established for feedback from students.

“I believe that their biggest contribution to the goal of quality education is not in their learning abilities per se, but in their experience of learning and the feedback that they can provide on the curriculum, teaching methods, and generally the various institutional policies,” she said.

Mrs Ohene-Sarfo added that as principal actors in education, teachers must be given the space to be creative and innovative to bring the best out of their students.

She observed that the creative abilities of teachers to engender excellent learning outcomes were sometimes curtailed by “standardised, compliance-driven formats, templates, and guidelines” issued by the government, a situation she noted encouraged rote learning.

“Sometimes, it is the structures regulating them that do not harness their best self.

“Some teachers would confess that they are restrained from implementing some creative ideas that could help their lagging students to catch up,” she said.

The Chief Engineer further called for strong and properly structured alumni systems across all schools to benefit from their resources, connections and exposures.

She said alumni were an important resource and, when harnessed effectively, was capable of significantly impacting the fortunes of schools but not too many schools had that arrangement properly deployed.

Examples abound of alumni investing in infrastructure improvements, study materials, prizes for performing students, and many more such noble gestures,” she said.

“In other jurisdictions, alumni support has long-lasting effects, as alumni set up funds and foundations that have trans-generational impacts.

“More importantly, alumni by their different endeavours can regularly expose students to professional vocations so that students are better able to connect their studies to prospective careers in the future,” she added.

She entreated students to be ambitious and hardworking and urged teachers to stay committed to their duties to improve learning outcomes.

For the alumni, she challenged them to be intentional in their actions to support the students and their schools in the spirit of collaboration to enhance quality education.

Mrs Dorothy Adentwi-Hayford, the Headmistress of the school, said the 85th anniversary was a testament to the school’s excellent legacy built over the years.

She noted that the school had produced many great persons who were impacting the country and the world in many ways and paid glowing tribute to her predecessors and pioneers of the institution, indicating that the celebration was not just about recounting the past but embracing the future with renewed commitment and strategy.

Mrs Adentwi-Hayford said the school must evolve in response to the changing world while staying true to its original vision. 

“Let's celebrate our past, appreciate our present and look forward to a bright and fulfilling future,” she said.

 Dr Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, the Global President of the alumni, bemoaned the neglect of the school by successive governments which had left it lacking in infrastructure and other resources.

He, therefore, appealed to the government to finish abandoned projects and also the alumni to support immensely to give the school a befitting status.