Akosombo International School (AIS), a Ghanaian coeducational international second-cycle institution, under the auspices of the Volta River Authority (VRA), has launched its 60th anniversary celebration activities.
Addressing students, staff, old students, the leadership of VRA – its parent organisation, and other stakeholders in the education sector at the anniversary launch, the Rector of Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Professor Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo, who also happens to be an old student of AIS, urged the student body to strive to acquire fourth industrial revolutionary skills and mindset to become reformative leaders who will change society for the better.
According to him, the current state of the African continent can only be attributed to bad leadership and so to cause transformation means the continent needs a new form of leaders who are conscious of the problems and needs of society. Therefore, today’s students – who are the future leaders – must take light in identifying and proposing solutions to problems, as well as aspiring for leadership positions to bring a change.
“Take light on the problems that lie before you and be interested in playing a key role in the transformation of the African continent. Our society needs new forms of leaders who will enable our continent to compete with the rest of the world and I urge you to seek to become this new kind of leader in our society.
“A mindset is an important tool for achieving anything and transforming our society. I will urge you to develop these five kinds of mindset: the disciplined mind, ethical mind, creative mind, synthesising mind, and respectful mind,” he said.
The theme for the diamond anniversary celebration is: ‘AIS at 60: Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today’.
Touching on the role of teachers in the development of students, Prof Kwansah-Aidoo advised school management to be assertive and be guided by the tenet of integrity devoid of vices that would derail the mandate of improving quality education in the country and beyond.
He added that today’s students will be working in the global market place, and the kind of skills acquired in school will show where they stand in the space; hence, teachers must help students acquire new sets of skills which will be relevant in the fourth industrial revolution.
Taking his turn, Chief Executive of VRA, Ing. Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, narrated how the school started with 44 students of different nationalities, mainly British, French, German and Portuguese. These students, he said, were children of expatriate workers brought in to work on the Akosombo dam when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah started the project.
AIS, he said, has grown to provide a comprehensive and holistic education for all, doubled its streams at the basic level and six streams at the secondary level with the support of the authority and management of the school.
He said VRA, as the shareholder of the school, was 60 years in 2021 and had nurtured and supported the institution to enhance education including the introduction of the Energy Conservation Campaign in 2020, which received international recognition.
He commended successive management and all stakeholders for supporting the school to grow to that level, and urged the management to provide quality, innovative and lifelong educational solutions to the students to be productive in life.
Headmaster of the School, Julius Kog-Der, said since the institution’s establishment in 1962, it has churned out distinguished personalities in several fields.
He further said that the school has won several awards recently including music awards, Microsoft awards for teaching and learning, Presidential awards in BECE, Best International School in sports, and the most recent one being an international award for a video clip on sustainable cities management during COVID-19.
