The John Gatsi Educational Foundation has celebrated its 10th anniversary celebration with an awards ceremony held on Friday, at the Bagome Brotherhood Junior High School at Dzodze in the Volta Region.
The celebration marked a decade of support to the improvement of education by the Foundation in the Ketu North municipality and beyond.
Speaking at the event, Madam Patience Efua Dogbey, the headmistress of Bagome Brotherhood M/A Basic ‘A’ School, noted that the foundation, had been of immeasurable significance to the promotion of education within the municipality.
“I choose to call today’s event a ‘special ceremony’ because this year’s event is not ordinary, but a ceremony marking ten years of hard work, dedication, sacrifice and patriotism from our brother, father, son, uncle, from the Ketu North,” she said.
She said: “…A decade of promoting education in Ketu North is no joke. The John Gatsi Educational Foundation has been of an immeasurable significance for us.”
She, however, lamented that the performance of pupils from the public schools had continually been poor, a phenomenon she blamed on lack of proper supervision in the public schools.
“There is a very disturbing trend of results building up from the performance of pupils in the basic schools. It’s no doubt that private schools are producing better results as compared to their counterparts from the public sector. Something I believe we are going to see manifest again in today’s awards probably,” she said.
The guest speaker, Mr Godwin Kaledzi, a retired educationist, admonished the pupils to abandon the joy and comfort of today, for a better tomorrow.
“Success or prosperity hides itself in the tail end of a tortuous, narrow, rough path. Therefore, it’s only those who persevere that can get to the tail end of that path, and for that matter achieve success or prosperity,” he said.
“Traveling to that end is for those who are self-disciplined. I advise you all to abandon the joy and comfort of today for a better tomorrow,” he said.
The founder of the John Gatsi Educational Foundation, Professor John Gatsi, revealed that the focus of the foundation was to contribute to the growth of school children, and to provide the basis for the assessment of the work of teachers and the pupils, who took part in the annual competitive essay and examination.
“We believe we have made a significant impact because anytime the children hear that they are going to write John Gatsi Educational Foundation’s competitive exams, everybody wants to be selected. So it has actually developed that competitive learning spirit, teachers also see it as an indirect way of assessing their work in their various schools,” he said.
He said: “Today, we have awarded the best school; so other schools work very hard for the awards. That’s the kind of competitive spirit we have generated among the schools, and that’s exactly our focus.”
Nathaniel Lanyo of Vehem Mawunyo International School was adjudged the overall best pupil.
