Komenda Senior High Technical is 17

17-10-08
Page 11


THE Second World War (1939-1945) bequeathed a barracks to the people of the Komenda Traditional Area. It was inhabited by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal British Navy. A section of the barracks provided the fertile ground where a mustard seed was sown, growing to become the Komenda Senior High Technical School.
The school was established in January 1991 as a community co-educational day senior high school, with preference for technical training. In accordance with the government’s policy at the time, PNDCL 207, the school inherited its basic equipment for teaching and learning from the Experimental Junior Secondary School which which later became Aldesgate Junior Secondary School, Komenda.
The decision to locate the school in the barracks was resolved through consultations with the traditional rulers, the Komenda, Edina, Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) administration then headed by Major Joseph Atta Clifford-Wirrom (Rtd), the Regional Education Office, then under Mr P. A. K. Badu-Prah, and Dr G.K. Erbynn, the then Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Centre and now Nana Owoododow X, Chief of Assin Jakai and Praso in the Central Region.
The structures in the barracks underwent some renovation works and expansion, with additional facilities to make it suitable for educational use. By 1999, the Technical, Agricultural and Visual Arts departments had been given permanent classrooms.The headmaster’s office and library blocks were also completed.
Guided by its motto “Dzinpa Ye Sen Ahonya”, - good name is better than riches, the pioneer students, numbering 73, comprising 55 boys and 18 girls under the tutorship of five, including the headmaster, girded their loins, uprooted stubborn stumps, filled gullies, reduced bushes to pathways and toiled variously to give the school its current shape and condition.
To date, close to 1,000 boys and girls have been duly registered, trained and passed out into the world and are found in all walks of life.
We commend those band of noble teachers who endured the harsh conditions and served in various capacities and lifted the banner of the school high. We salute them.
Four heads have administered the school since its inception. Mr Joseph Ernest Tachie-Menson, now of blessed memory, was the pioneer headmaster. His tenure spanned January 1991 to January 1999. He was responsible for the construction and inauguration of the first sets of new buildings.
He is remembered for hosting two speech days. The first was on October 10, 1995 and the second on October 11, 1997.
Ms Victoria Regina Longdon (1999-2003) was credited with the introduction of a canteen system which enabled hostel students to have regular hygiene and timely-served meals. The result was an increase in enrolment as students from outside the community joined the school from Winneba, Apam, Saltpond, Sekondi-Takoradi and Cape Coast. She also held two speech days.
Mr Gabriel Kwame Tagborlo (March 2003-June 2005) succeded Ms Longdon. His service with the school ended in June 2005 by reason of retirement. The fourth and current headmaster, Mr David Nicholas Bonney took office in June 2005.
Today, KOMENSTEC is no longer a community day school. It is a national school that offers placement for every Ghanaian student who qualifies by all standards to pursue a senior high technical school education. With a further expansion of facilities by an additional magnificent two-storey girls dormitory block to offer accommodation for non-community students, a 76-seater Eicher bus to promote educational tours and a 300-seater dining hall block under constrution, the school is poised to gradually take its place among its kind in the country.
The school is grateful to the government of Ghana through its relevant bodies for the continued care and support it has received from it. The Board of Governors and parent-teacher association (PTA) is collaborating with the school’s administration to develop the school further.
As the school celebrates its day tomorrow, Saturday, October 18, 2008, its board, all teaching and non-teachinfg staff, students, well wishers and friends, wish the school a happy celebrations.