Second Lady calls for more holistic training of students

By Afedzi Abdullah, GNA

Cape Coast, March 17, GNA - The Second Lady, Mrs Samira Bawumia, has stressed the need for schools in the country to fashion out a holistic education approach to produce all-round students for the development of the country. 

She said schools must desist from merely focusing on getting students to pass their examination and score best grades at the expense of encouraging them to advance on the path of self-discovery.

Speaking at the 74th Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Holy Child School in Cape Coast at the weekend, the Second Lady said holistic education, once pursued, would produce responsible students ready to take up any challenges in the future.

The celebration, which was on the theme “Maintaining a Holistic Approach to Education - The Role of Stakeholders” brought together Members of Parliament (MP), Ministers of State, past students, students and the general public.

Mrs Bawumia underscored the importance of a holistic education system to today’s globalised world, adding that the most important skills one could have was the ability to respond and adopt to changes happening around the World.

She explained that a holistic and integrated education required developing one’s intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic and spiritual potentials towards national development.

“Helping students to appreciate their own abilities and working on their weaknesses. Preparing students to meet the challenges they face in all aspect of their lives is the way to go,” she stated.

Mrs Bawumia encouraged the students to challenge their aspirations regularly, maintain and protect their personalities, develop right morals and attitude and work hard to achieve academic excellence.

Most Reverend Mathias Kobena Nketsia, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Coast, said the church had played crucial role in providing holistic education in the country despite some challenges.

He said holistic education had been and continued to be the hallmark of all faith-based educational institutions in the country.

This, he noted was evident in the calibre of students churned out over the years by mission schools.

He said religion was a necessary dimension of a holistic, complete and integral education and that this was obvious in first class schools in Cape Coast where most of them are religious-based, which have become schools of choice for many.

However, he expressed worry about the continuous dwindling of the influence of the church and religious bodies on their schools, despite repeated assurances, and said the trend must be reversed.

He said holistic education being delivered at Holy Child School have had and continued to have tremendous effect on its products.

He therefore called on stakeholders to play their respective roles and ensure that students received the required education that would make them responsible for the future.

Most Rev. Nketsia paid tribute to past students of the school for their invaluable contribution towards the progress and development of the school.

The Guest Speaker, Mrs Esther Dornuki Aikins, an Educationist encouraged school authorities to imbibe in students, good social norms for meaningful living, saying that, they constituted an integral part of holistic education.

Mrs Anastasia Thomford Okyere, Headmistress of the School, gave the breakdown of the 2019 WASSCE as follows; 404 students sat for the examination, 396 recorded eight passes with only eight recording seven passes.

She appealed to stakeholders to help address infrastructural challenges of the School, which included inadequate classrooms, congested dormitories, staff accommodation, among others.

Awards were given to deserving students and staff.

GNA

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