ADDRESS BY DR. EMMANUEL Y. ABLO
OLD STUDENT, RETIRED WORLD BANK EMPLOYEE & BOARD CHAIRMAN, INTERNETGHANA LTD.

GUEST SPEAKER

Mr. Chairman
Ladies and Gentlemen
Students

It is a great honour for me to be the guest speaker on this occasion. I thank the headmaster, the staff and the Old Students Association for the invitation.

After leaving Keta Secondary School in 1961 I attended a function of this type once. That was in 1972. Four years later I went into economic exile. Except for short visits, my wife and I were away for 27 years.

I must confess my contacts with my alma mater, Keta Secondary School, have been limited.

That is all the more reason why this invitation came to me like a wake-up call. It sent a powerful message to me. The message: it is time to get involved in the affairs of your school; better late than never.

I intend to use this platform to pass the same message on to parents and old students whose involvement in the affairs of the school, like mine, has been limited.

The theme for the occasion is “our achievements, challenges and the way forward”. The headmaster and the senior school prefect have ably dealt with the three parts to the theme. But permit me to touch on them.

Let me begin with achievements.

I can still cast my mind’s eye back to the humble beginnings of Keta Secondary School. It all began in a two-storey house not far from here. In my time we were all day students. There was no piped water; no water closet; no computer; no mobile phone. Everyone had to study Latin, at least up to form three.
I was given a tour of the school only yesterday. I felt like Rip Van Winkle, a man who slept for twenty years and woke up to find a changed world. Seeing what Keta Secondary is today, I felt I slept longer than Rip Van Wrinkle!

The institution has changed a great deal—for the better. Progress can be measured in terms of the following:

physical facilities;
student numbers;
staff numbers;
staff quality, and
performance in academic and non-academic fields.

I must congratulate all those who have contributed to the progress of the school over the years; that is:

The board of Governors;
T he Parent Teacher Association;
T he headmasters;
T he staff;
Old students;
current students, and
Benefactors at large.

On occasions like this let us not forget our brothers and sisters, who worked or studied here, who have passed away; also others who contributed to the school’s progress.

The achievements the headmaster spoke about should spur us to greater effort; not make us complacent, swollen-headed. For, beyond Keta, there are senior secondary schools which are doing just as well as Keta Secondary School—in some cases better.

I am indebted to Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah for information that would help put our academic achievements in perspective. The information comes from the J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures that he gave in the year 2000. The lectures are entitled Education in Ghana: A Tool for Social Mobility or Social Stratification?

Professor Addae-Mensah presented figures which showed that 72 percent of students admitted to degree courses at the University of Ghana in 1998/1999 came from just 50 senior secondary schools. These schools represent slightly less than ten percent of the total of 504 senior secondary schools in the country at the time. In 1999/2000 the figure was 63 percent.

In the case of the University of Science and Technology 75 percent of students enrolled in degree programmes in 1998/1999 came from only 50 senior secondary schools. In 1999/2000 the figure was the same; 75 percent.

Professor Addae-Mensah provided a sort of super-league table of senior secondary schools, numbering about twenty. The ranking is in terms of number of admissions to the University of Ghana and the University of Science and Technology in the two years under review. These are still the premier universities in Ghana.

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