Labone SDA Church Schools has launched its 40th anniversary celebration with a pledge from school authorities to continue to strive for the holistic development of students while fostering a sense of community.
Speaking at the launch on July 9, the Chairman of the School Board at Labone SDA Church Schools, Mr. Emmanuel Hanson, revealed that, as part of the school’s corporate social responsibility programme, they are giving free education scholarships to the Osu Children’s Home and also to students in the school who might have lost their breadwinners along the way.
Mr. Hanson stated that the school aims to positively impact the community by providing the right training to students, regardless of the number of orphanage home placements.
He said the Labone SDA Church School also absorbs 50% of the fees of its pupils whose parents are either teachers or members of the church, which he termed a bursary.
While highlighting the achievements of the school in producing a significant number of people of high repute, he refuted claims that the majority of the students are Adventists.
“No, when you come here, the majority of the pupils are not Adventists; 85% of them are not Adventists, so if they say it is for only Adventists, that’s not true.”
He said that very soon the school will be running the Cambridge system of education. This, according to him, is because the school wants to have a greater impact and influence in the community where it is situated.
“We are expanding, and it is a global village we live in now. You cannot depend only on Ghana; you want to relate to other nations, and therefore we want to go international so we can go anywhere,” he stressed.
Labone SDA Church School started in October 1984 with just five students in class 1, but by dint of the hard work of its teaching and non-teaching staff, it now boasts over 600 students.
Pastor S. O. T. Hammond, president of the Accra City Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, for his part, advised that the academic calendar of schools should give pupils room to do their own thinking and learning.
“I was talking about the academic calendar because what we are doing now doesn’t help the children; the children need a break. If they can do their own individual thinking and be creative, then they need a break on their own to be close to nature and get in touch with the challenges they have in their environment that will make them think. I think today what we do for our children is that we are almost doing everything for them, and that is not making them think, and that is why I said the academic calendar must give them the room to be on their own and do their own thinking and learning.
He said he believes in some four programmes that, when particular attention is given, can help the students or pupils be able to think by themselves and be innovative.
“For me, I believe in about four subjects: Mathematics, Music, Science, and French. I mentioned French because we are surrounded by French-speaking countries, and if we really want to go international, we ought to stick to the French as well.”
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