OLA tops in academic performance rating in Volta Region

Ho, Feb. 8, GNA - OLA Girls Secondary School in Ho emerged tops in the 2003 performance rating of the 478 Senior Secondary Schools in the Volta Region in last year's Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE) and placed 22nd nationwide.

Mrs Philomena Afeti, Headmistress, announced this at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the school at Ho on Saturday.

She said the school presented 316 candidates, obtained 99.6 percent passes, one failure with 207 candidates scoring between aggregates eight and 24 making them eligible to enter tertiary institutions. While commending the teachers for their diligence in chalking the success she said the students could have performed better if they had been studious from the onset instead of wasting "their time on unnecessary and trivial matters", for much of the time.

She appealed to parents and guardians to continue to urge their wards to appreciate the reason for being in the school.

Mrs Afeti said from now on students' performance in internal examinations would be graded in order of merit and displayed in the school for every student to know how she was faring academically. In his report, Mr Leonard A.Y. Kokorokoh, Chairman of the PTA urged parents to appreciate the fact that payment for extra classes had become part and parcel of the reality of education in the country for the attainment of academic excellence.

He said the situation was no longer what it was when "we were in school when teachers organised evening and extra classes free of charge."

Mr Kokorokoh observed that the good result posted by the final year students last year was a vindication and justification for extra sacrifices of parents towards the academic success of their wards and an assurance that their future sacrifices would not be in vain.

"A good school attracts good students and we should expect many more students seeking admission into the school next academic year," he said. Mr Kokorokoh urged parents to encourage their wards to come to terms with the demands of secondary education because they were entering secondary school at tender ages with little appreciation of the seriousness that was required of them.

He appealed to parents to stop the practice of seeking permission for their wards to attend family weddings and funerals as these tended to deny them of the time they required for serious studies.

Mr Kokorokoh was happy at the general level of discipline at the school and urged the PTA to assist in improving security at the school, which had of late been plagued by thefts, suggesting that such well planned and precision thefts could lead to sexual assault on the students themselves.