Accra Academy

Accra Academy is a non-denominational day and boarding boys' school. It is located at Bubuashie near Kaneshie in the Greater Accra Region. The school was established as a private secondary educational institution in 1931 and gained the status of a Government-Assisted School in 1950. It was the first private academy to be established in the Gold Coast, and is regarded as one of the foremost secondary educational institutions in Ghana.

The academy runs courses in business, general science, general arts, agricultural science and visual arts, leading to the award of a West African Senior School Certificate.....

The academy's founders provided tuition to students who wanted a secondary-grade education but who did not have financial support to enable them do so.. The first principal and co-founder, Kofi Konuah periodically travelled to some of the major towns in each region of the country to organize entrance examinations for students, so as to offer the brilliant but needy among them the opportunity of education in the Accra Academy. The academy no longer offers special admission to brilliant but needy students but, as per a 2005 general directive from the Ghana Education Service, admits its students through a school selection placement system.

Accra Academy was ranked 8th out of the top 100 best high schools in Africa by Africa Almanac in 2003, based upon quality of education, student engagement, strength and activities of alumni, school profile, internet and news visibility. Amongst its unique achievements include; being the first senior high school to have produced successive Chief Justices of Ghana, and the only school at the moment to have produced successive Ghanaian speakers of parliament. It is also the first school to have produced a head of state and a deputy head of state in the same government in Ghana.

History

The academy was founded by Messrs.Kofi George Konuah, Samuel Neils Awuletey, Gottfried Narku Alema and James Akwei Halm-Addo on July 20, 1931, at Mantse Agbonaa, a suburb of James Town in Accra..

Start in Ellen House

The academy's founders operated the school from a two-story house that provided classrooms for the students. The facility was named Ellen House after its leaser, Ellen Buckle. The academy began work with a student enrolment of 19, distributed into Forms 1 through to 3. The founders of the academy together with M. F. Dei-Anang and Samuel Sonkor Sackey comprised the initial teaching staff of the school. Sackey worked as a teacher and Bursar and Awuletey taught shorthand and Book-keeping. Lutterodt set up the science department and Alema taught agricultural science.

Government-Assisted School status

In December 1932, the academy presented its first batch of ten students for the Junior Cambridge School Certificate Examination, seven out of whom passed the examination. In 1939, the academy presented 45 students for the Senior Cambridge School Certificate Examination, out of whom 42 students passed, with 10 students obtaining exemption from the London Matriculation Examination.Frederick Hadaway Hilliard, ''A Short History of Education in British West Africa'' New York/London: Thomas Nelson, 1957, p. 96.

In 1947, a recommendation was made to the director of education to grant the academy the status of a Government Assisted School.Hilliard (1957), p. 108. The recommendation was approved and the academy begun operating as a Government Assisted school from 1 January 1950.

Relocating to Bubuashie

The academy operated as a day-school for some time after its inception till it began accommodating students in Claremont House, a single-storey building adjoining Ellen House. Accommodation was limited and therefore was only offered to students in special circumstances. Due to a steady increase in the number of applicants applying for enrolment in the academy, the academy's administrators began preparations to relocate the academy to a larger and permanent site. The initial site that was acquired to relocate the school was situated at Kokomlemle; however, this site had to be abandoned as a result of a prolonged litigation concerning the ownership of the land. A second site, which was located at Korle Gonno, was also given up because of its remote location.

The search for a new school site ended in 1956 when Halm-Addo succeeded in lobbying the Convention People's Party government to relocate and expand the academy as part of its accelerated development plan. Owing to his efforts, the academy was offered a 37-acre plot of land at Bubuashie, off the Winneba Road.

J. Monta & Sons was awarded the contract to develop the new school site in October 1959, however actual work on the site began in December of the same year and by July 1961, J. Monta & Sons presented the newly developed school site to the school administrators for the celebration of the academy's thirtieth anniversary. In September of the same year, both staff and students relocated from Ellen House to the present site at Bubuashie.

A ceremony to officially recognize the academy's relocation to Bubuashie was held in February 1962 and A. J. Dowuona-Hammond, then Minister of Education and coincidentally a past student of the school, declared the new school site opened. The academy acquired the nickname Little Legon shortly after the new school site was commissioned, when some students from the Western Region who had gained admission into the University of Ghana, reported at the academy instead of the University of Ghana, apparently confused by the close similarity between the infrastructure of both educational institutions. A dormitory block to serve as a residential facility for students was completed later in 1966.

Becoming a fully-fledged SSS

In 1981, the academy celebrated its golden jubilee with the status of a fully fledged senior secondary school with a student enrolment of 900 and a teaching staff of 52. In 1990, the Provisional National Defense Council permitted the academy to operate as a semi-autonomous educational institution, together with 10 other secondary schools upon acknowledgement by the Secretary of Education, K. B. Asante.

Academics

Admission

Being a senior high school for boys, the academy offers admission to boys only. Gaining entry into the academy is competitive, and open to students who have completed Junior high school. Prior to writing their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), final year Junior High School students, register for senior high school through a computerized school selection and placement system (CSSPS) which was introduced by the Ghana Education service in 2005..

Unlike in the previous grading system in which a candidate's overall academic performance in the Basic Education Certificate Examination was obtained by computing the aggregate on the candidate's best six subject scores, the raw scores obtained by a candidate in the Basic Education Certificate Examination determines the candidates overall academic performance in the exam under the computerized school selection and placement system. Because the computerized school selection and placement system uses a deferred-acceptance algorithm which ensures that Junior high school applicants are admitted strictly based on academic merit, administrators of the academy use raw scores obtained in the Basic Education Certificate Examination to admit applicants from Junior High School.

Curriculum

The programmes run in the academy are: general arts, general science, agriculture, business and visual arts. As part of their computerized school selection and placement system registration, final year junior high school applicants select four elective courses. Unlike elective courses, core courses are offered to all students, irrespective of their programme of study.. The academy's core courses are: English language, core mathematics, social studies, integrated science, ICT (core) and physical education, however, students are only examined both internally and externally as well, in the first five aforementioned courses.

The academy's curriculum like that of other senior high schools in Ghana, operates in a three-year academic cycle, from form one to form three. The beginning of the first academic year marks the enrolment of the student in the academy, while the ending of the third academic year marks the graduation of the student.

Academic performance

The academy maintains a high academic standard and has over the years been ranked among the best performing senior high schools in Ghana. In 2009, the academy was listed among six other schools in the Greater Accra Region, which had 60% or more of its candidates qualifying for tertiary education. In a survey, the academy was listed among secondary schools in Ghana that contribute 50% or more of its students to universities.

In 2018, 676 students of the school sat the WASSCE. 640 students of this number passed in all 8 courses taken (i.e obtained grades between A1 to C6). This represented a percentage pass of 94.7% and percentage of students of qualified academic enrolment status into a university programme in Ghana. In 2020, 672 students of the school sat the WASSCE. 633 students of this number had passes in 6 courses (i.e 4 core courses and 2 elective courses). This represented a percentage pass of 94.2% in relation to passes in 6 courses.

Student life

Facilities

Halls of residence

The academy has eight halls of residence. The first four of these halls were inaugurated as part of the school's 1967 Annual Speech and Prize Giving Day activities. Among the four, three were later renamed after founding fathers of the school, with the exception of Kofi Konuah, while the fourth is named after Mrs. Ellen Buckle. They are as follows; Alema, Awuletey, Ellen, Halm Addo. The remaining four halls were inaugurated as part of the school's 83rd Founders' Day Celebration in 2014. They are named after the following prominent alumni; Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, Nana Wereko Ampem II and Nana Awuah Darko Ampem.

Each hall is supervised by a hall-master while a senior hall-master serves as a liaison between all four halls of residence. Hall-prefects assist hall-masters in the performance of their official duties and have a general responsibility to maintain order in their halls.

Hall-masters are not resident in the halls they supervise but rather housed in staff bungalows on the school's premises, on the other hand, hall-prefects reside in the halls in which they exercise jurisdiction. Each hall of residence contains a bedroom, storage room, ironing room, prefects' cubicle and a washroom.

Each academic year, the administrators of the academy organize athletics competitions between the members of the four Halls of Residence as a way of building up rapport among students. These inter-Hall athletic competitions also serve as an avenue for the academy's sports trainers to select students with outstanding sports qualities who can represent the academy in external sports competitions.

Regulations and sanctions

The Accra Academy maintains strict rules on discipline.. A student undertaking a mild punishment is asked to carry out cleaning, scrubbing, sweeping, weeding or disposing of refuse. A student who commits a grievous school offence is made to proceed on an indefinite suspension or is dismissed from the academy, a notable example of which is the dismissal of Chuckie Taylor

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