St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School

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St. Thomas Aquinas High school
Location
Cantonment street, Osu, Accra, Ghana
Information
Type Public – Senior High
Motto Veritas Liberat
Established 1952
Head of school Mr Cyril Dadey
Grades Senior Secondary Years 1–3
Enrollment Form 1 - 3
Number of students 1,500[citation needed]
Campus size 1000 by 100 Square meter
Campus type Boys-only day school
Houses 4 (Elsbernd, Hotze, McKillip and Lessage)
Color(s) White, Blue,Yellow
Slogan Beebɛ
Athletics Basketball, Soccer, Short and long Distance sprinting
Affiliation Catholic Church of Ghana
Address P. O. Box 101<Osu/>Accra
Ghana
School Anthem "We students of Aquinas, in striving for perfection"
Website www.saintaquinasschool.com

St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School is a Public Day Senior High School for boys established in the Greater Accra Region by the Catholic missionaries on February, 28, 1952; in the present premises of St. Peter's Catholic Church, Osu, a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s Capital City. Currently situated opposite the European Union Offices and the Civil Service Training School, laying between the Cantonment Police Station to its South and The Embassy of Togo to its North, is Aquinas or Quinas (as often referred to) High School, with close proximity to the prime area of the commercial and administrative hub of Osu's Oxford Street, Accra. In 2013, Aquinas High School was adjudged the Overall Best High School in Ghana, winning it's Maiden Ghana National Science and Maths Quiz Competition in 2013.

The present location provides a serene atmosphere conducive for the attainment of genuine academic and moral discipline which are the cornerstone and aim of the school founding patron saints. Presently, the school runs nine (9) streams and five (5) academic Programmes. Enrollment level now stands at over one thousand two hundred (1 200) students with a Teaching staff strength of about sixty five (65) and non-teaching staff, numbering close to thirty five (35). The motto of the school is "Veritas Liberat", meaning "The truth sets you free" and it is a Latin variant of Veritas vos liberabit from the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 32.

Overview

In November 1955, the first candidate (one person) was presented for the General School Certificate Examination and had a 100 percent pass. In September 1963, the school relocated to its present permanent site at Cantonment Street, Osu. Furthermore in 1973, a Sixth Form education was formally introduced in the school. Mr James Dapaah Asamoah is the current Headmaster, distinguished presently as the twelfth (12TH) Headmaster of the school. The school won the National Science and Maths Quiz in 2013, beating Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School and Mfantsiman Girls Secondary School, which placed second and third respectively in the grand finale.



Notably in numerous achievements is when in 2013, Aquinas came first in the maiden edition of the Science and Technology Fair organized by the Young Educators Foundation (YEF), an education oriented non-governmental organization. The school has consistently and successfully been adjudged the best day school in Ghana, as well as, being part of few best acclaimed boy’s senior high schools in the country. In the 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the school maintained its 100 percent pass rate and the general academic performance of the school yielded enormous positive response. Aquinas is consistently listed among the top twenty schools in the whole of Ghana, currently in more than three different source of ranking criteria and websites. Aquinas is an arch-rival to Accra Academy and The Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School in the Greater Accra region and is the fiercest rival among other senior high schools in Ghana. Aquinas has ties with its sister school, Accra Girl’s High School, with a strong bond of students association, which is aimed at sharing entertainments, social activities, and educational exchange, called STAAGA (St Thomas Aquinas Accra Girls Association). The slogan of the school is “beebɛ”, a word in Ghana’s native Ga language, meaning “Waste No Time’’


History and Founding Fathers

The school was named after “Saint Thomas Aquinas”, a notable pre-eminent spokesperson of the catholic tradition of reason and divine revelation, who lived from 1225 to 1274. He was one of the greatest teachers of the Medieval Catholic Church, honored with titles of Doctor of the Church, as well as, Angelic Doctor. In the year 1239, he was sent to Naples where he became indoctrinated to the Aristotelian philosophy. He studied with Albert the Great in Paris and Cologne, held two Professorships, lived at the Court of Pope Alban IV, directed Dominican Schools and combated adversaries of mendicants, among others. Indeed, his greatest contribution to the Catholic Church evidently was his writings, which were characterized by unity, harmony and continuity of faith and reason and of revealed and natural human knowledge. A man of the Gospel, he was an ardent defender of revealed truth, and saw the whole natural order, as coming from God the sole creator of the Universe.


The Roman Catholic missionaries stood solidly in the forefront establishing schools across the length and breadth of the country in Ghana, to ardently educate boys in the catholic traditions. It was in this direction that the Catholic Bishop of Accra, the Most Rev. A. A. Noser, started St. Thomas Aquinas School in a two-storey house at Osu-Anohor close to the littoral, with a limited number of fifty(50) students. The original staff comprised three S. V. D. Reverend Fathers, notably Father Alphonse Elsbernd (the first Headmaster), Father Wilson and Father Fisher, together with two amateur teachers. In March 1954, Father Clement Hotze became the second Headmaster with one hundred and thirty (130) students and a staff strength of eight (8). The school was recognized as Government assisted, by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to present candidates for the Ordinary Level Examination in 1956, when Rev. Father John McKillip became Headmaster.

First Batch of Enrollment and School Growth Timelines

The first batch of students wrote the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 1957 with flying colors. The then Headmaster of the school in 1958, Rev. Father Maurice Lessage, a Botanist whose love for reptiles, led him to keeping snakes on the school compound and ultimately wrote a book entitled "Snakes of West Africa", proved very indefatigable in his endeavor to grow the school to maturity and fame. Assisted by a colleague catholic priest, named Rev. Fathers Joseph Schorupka (popularly called Father Joe), Brother Burnes and Brother Kostkhar, the school grew in popularity as student population soared, creating inconveniences and enormous burden on classroom space. As a new and more suitable site was being contemplated, in September 1961, the Chiefs of La finally released a parcel of about 10 hectares of land at Cantonment to serve that purpose. The founding fathers quickly procured the necessary resources coupled with the approval of the Ministry of Education to put up classrooms and science laboratories for the school.


Conversant with the difficulties of Quinas students securing places in the Sixth Form grade in other schools, the then Headmaster, Rev. Father John McKillip, applied for the instituting of the Sixth Form at the school, to enable students partake the Advanced Level Certificate Examination ('A' Level) to fast track their entry to tertiary institutional levels. This materialized as the Ghana Ministry of Education gave the approval and establishment in 1971. The teaching staff capacity was strengthened by the American Peace Corps and the United Kingdom Overseas Volunteer Corps who were specialists in Science, Mathematics and English Literature. As a result, Aquinas attracted children of European and Asian expatriates residing in Accra. Among the Asian students worth mentioning, are currently surviving names like the Ashkhars and others.



Present Location and Uniform

Located at Cantonment Street opposite the European Union Offices and the Civil Service Training School, laying between the Cantonment Police Station to its south and the Embassy of Togo near the Cantonments round-about, within the prime area of the commercial and administrative hub of Osu, Accra, is the present site of St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School, where the students wear white shirt with the school crest christened “Veritas Liberat”, meaning, "only the truth can set you free”, boldly engraved, tucked into a brown Khaki pair of shorts to match. In contemporary times, however, a light blue shirt and the school cloth which is textile, embossed abundantly with the school crest, have fashionably supplemented the traditional white shirt which was the choice of the founding fathers. It is needless reminding the Ghanaian intellectual that the European Christian missionaries who arrived on the shores of the Gold Coast in the early twentieth century had a dual aim of opening up the country through proselytization and education. In September 1963, the school relocated to its permanent site on the Cantonment Street, Osu, Accra. The new location provides a serene atmosphere conducive for the attainment of genuine academic and moral discipline which are cornerstones of the school.

Sixtieth Anniversary

The 60 years commemoration of catholic moral and academic education was outdoored under the theme "Sixty Years of Holistic Catholic Education towards National Development: The Day School Experience", on March 7, 2011 at the Aquinas School Chapel, with an array of activities that were accomplished. The Guest Speaker, Professor George Hagan, who was very philosophical in his address, challenged all Old Toms to put into practice the values of what was inculcated in them, as they journeyed on the academic ladder of education. He further charged them to lead morally upright lives, eschew corruption and to avoid indulgence in any forms of vices which will not only to tarnish but detract their good image in society.

A special Remembrance Day Thanksgiving Service was held for the repose of the souls of deceased Old Toms (as past students are affectionately called) over the decades. An anniversary festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was held on December 21, 2011. The St. Thomas Aquinas Day (Founder's Day) came on Saturday, 28 January 2012 and afforded the opportunity for proactive interaction with sections of the student invitees, drawn from sister Catholic Schools in Accra. The School Choir under the choirmaster-ship of Mr. Jojo Anderson, had a tight itinerary, however, the Choir entertained the congregations with their sweet melodious songs and were highly appraised and applauded. Professor John Owusu Gyapong, a Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, diligently accepted and chaired his alma mater's 60th anniversary grand commemorative durbar amalgamated with a speech and prize giving day which climax the celebrations on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at the school premises.

Postdated Accolades and Achievements

By the year 2012 when St. Thomas Aquinas High School celebrated its golden jubilee, academic programmes had expanded to include Business Studies, Agricultural Sciences and Visual Arts. Staff bungalows began to spring up with a Headmaster's accommodation, a one-storey block academic staff residence, a hostel facility and a canteen for students, all being strategically sited on the school landmark. The founding fathers' motives of bringing up students in a brilliant academic manner coupled with sound moral background, yielded fruitful results, as sizeable number of Old Toms made their ways into the Seminaries for training and induction into the Priesthood. Truly, the school has produced two Catholic Bishops and an Anglican Bishop-Elect for the Clergy of the Republic of Ghana. They are the Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai (1966 year group) and Most Rev. Gabriel Edoe Kumordji (1976 year group), the Bishops of the Dioceses of Yendi in the Northern Region and the Prefecture of Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains district respectively. The Anglican Bishop-Elect of the Accra Dioceses of the Anglican Church is the Rt. Rev. D. S. M. Torto (1978 year group).

In addition, there are currently about 16 Old Toms, who are parish priests in various catholic dioceses across the nation. We recollect Rev. Fathers Quaye Foli, Andrew Addo Obeng and Benjamin Opoku Ohene (1989 year group), who is serving as the current Assistant Headmaster of Academic at the school. The legacy of writing bequeathed by the Patron Saint Thomas Aquinas has dawned on them, as most of them have authored religious books on the Catholic doctrine. The annals of Old Tom priests would be incomplete without the mention of Monsignor Alex Bobby Benson (1972 year group) of the Koforidua diocese, who as an integrate part of his birthday celebration at the St. Thomas Aquinas School Campus, launched Matthew 25 House, an HIV/AIDS Project in Ghana, as well as, a fund-raising for the construction of a Hospice facility to be dedicated to the care of people with terminal illness. Indeed, Old Toms have made significant impacts with their performance at both national and international levels.



Notable Old Toms

Politics, Academia and Religion

  • Professor George Hagan - Presidential Candidate for The Convention People's Party (CPP) in the 2000 General Elections, Ghana.
  • Professor John Owusu Gyapong - Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon.
  • Bishop Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, S.V.D. (1966 year group) - Bishops of the Dioceses of Yendi in the Northern Region, Ghana
  • Rev. Gabriel Edoe Kumordji (1976 year group) - Prefecture of Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains district.
  • Rt. Rev. D. S. M. Torto (1978 year group) - The Anglican Bishop of the Accra Dioceses of the Anglican Church
  • Rev. Father Andrew Anum Quaye-Foli - Parish Priest

Corporate and Business

  • Monsignor Alex Bobby Benson (1972 year group) - Matthew 25 House, an HIV/AIDS Project in Ghana
  • Mr. Ransford Tetteh - Past President of Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) / Editor of the Daily Graphic

Sports, Fashion and Entertainment

  • Isaac Coffie (2005 year group) - Soccer Star Genoa-Italian Serie A
  • Edmund Hottor (2005 year group) - Soccer Star, Ac Milan-Italian Serie A
  • Eddie Blay - Hiplife Musician (Pioneer of Ghana Rap Music)
  • Elikem Kumordzie - Fashion Designer (Cloth the Ghana Black Stars' team, at the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup )
  • David Tetteh-Quarshie - Actor (By The Fireside TV Series fame) and National Theater of Ghana

Chronological list of Headmasters

Name Period
Rev. Fr. A. Elsbernd January 1952 – March 1954
Rev. Fr. C. Hotze April 1954 – April 1956
Rev. Fr. J. Mckillip May 1956 – August 1957
Rev. Fr. E. Datig September 1957 – September 1958
Rev. Fr. M. Lessage July 1958 – September 1969
Rev. Fr. J. Mckillip September 1969 – June 1978
Mr. D. D. Dumfeh September 1978 – August 1980
Mr. C. K. Koomsom October 1980 – September 1985
Rev. Fr. S. K. Batsa September 1985 – January 2003
Mr. F. K. Bebli September 2003 – March 2010
Mr. Francis Ahiafor March 2010 – 2013
Mr.Joseph Dapaah Asamoah 2013 – Present

References

External links

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