The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, has charged the board, staff and students of the Lincoln Community School in Abelenkpe, Accra, to adopt and support a school in a deprived community in Ghana.
He also urged them to incorporate some aspect of the Ghanaian culture into their curriculum the same way it was done in the United State of America (USA) in order to improve the lot of the students in the future.
The Minister of Education said this yesterday at the inauguration of a new elementary building of the Lincoln Community School (LCS) in Abelenkpe in Accra.
The three-storey edifice named “Akyɛdeɛ” was completed in February 2021 and was intentionally diverse to ensure that the demographic of teachers reflected the student body comprising about 62 nationals.
It was also built to upgrade learning and offer a wider and convenient space for the pupils.
According to Dr Adutwum, stakeholders in education needed to strive to ensure that the opportunities presented to children in private schools would be replicated in the public school system.
He was of the view that it was time “we run away from these rectangular buildings and begin to look at how to ensure we put children in spaces where they will have conducive atmosphere to learn”.
He said though most of the students might not be Ghanaians, it would be an advantage for them to learn the history of Ghana and speak one Ghanaian language which could inure to their advantage in the future.
“We can’t have different nationals coming to school in Ghana without them knowing about the history of the country, I want International Baccalaureate(IB) to do it the same way they do it for America, they should do it for Ghana and incorporate some of the aspect of the history of Ghana into the formal curriculum,” he said.
The Head of School, Lesly Tait, said the new building was aimed at meeting the needs of the children and also provide a conducive atmosphere for learning.
She said the school was embarking on a plan to redevelop the whole campus based on a master facilities plan approved by the Board of Trustees many years ago, adding that planning was currently underway for the commencement of the second phase of redevelopment.
The head of the school indicated that the second phase would include middle and high school classrooms to provide adequate learning spaces that best represented what the school believed when it came to high-quality teaching and learning.
The Board president of LCS, Olusola Ogundimu, said with the completion of the building, the mission and vision of the school would continue to be realised as it strategically aimed at creating vertical spaces that would support active learning experiences for all students.
Lincoln Community School is an international IB world school serving local and international families from 62 different countries of the world. It has been present here in Accra for the past 54 years and currently has a roll of 600 students from early childhood to senior High school levels.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
