‘From Gambaga to Accra’: A case for reimagining public high school education

Before you make the assumption, I am not an alumnus of Achimota School. However, the reason for my adoption of the famous line ‘From Gambaga to Accra’ from Motown’s school song would become apparent in the course of this piece.

Over the last few days, I have followed commentary on social media about remarks by the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, that ‘Grade A’ public high schools should admit low performing JHS graduates and transform them into excellent students to validate their status as institutions of high achievement.

I have read a number of opinions from different people (particularly on Twitter) as regards this issue, which span a broad spectrum from agreement to dissent. Most remarkable among these takes were the shared experiences on which these opinions were premised, so I will begin by sharing mine.

I attended Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School – Legon where I studied a bouquet of subjects in the General Arts program for three years. For what it’s worth, let me reiterate the clichéd yet accurate narrative that it is indeed one of the ‘G.O.A.T.s’ among public high schools in Ghana.

From my earliest days in the school, I knew I had found myself in one of the most competitive environments I could possibly be in at that point in my life. The school was and still is awash with some of the most critical young minds, whose prodigious skill in academics, sports, debating, student politics, arts, and entertainment knows no bounds.

Thus, there was an innate culture of competition and self-development on which the students (and by extension the school) thrived.

Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that this cross-generational culture of excellence is perpetuated in the school because it consistently attracts the brightest minds from junior high school, who yearn for such environments.


It is also not lost on me, that many like myself were well-grounded in the fundamentals of basic education, which catapulted us into the competitive environment of schools like PRESEC.

However, the unpleasant tales you occasionally hear about such ‘Grade A’ schools like mine also hold true. Yes, PRESEC is relatively very privileged when compared to scores of public high schools across the country.

But for all these privileges, I still attended a school that was prone to trespassing (at the time) due to its uncompleted perimeter wall, a number of teachers with a notoriety for low contact hours, sporadic water crises, an under-resourced library brimming with antiquated books, and more challenges than I can immediately list or recall.

If an institution as deficient as this could still be one of Ghana’s finest, held together by its culture of competition, some devoted teachers and a lot of prayers around the clock (ha-ha), one cannot help but wonder if our best solution to improving high school education would be the proposition made by the Minister for Education.

The truth is, schools like PRESEC themselves leave much to be desired and cannot possibly represent our best hopes for upscaling public high school education.
Now let me invite you to imagine a world as proposed by the Minister for Education.

It is understandable why at first blush; one would consider this a great approach to bridging the divide in educational quality.

The best of students would find themselves in the same learning environments with a good number of low-performing students and create pathways for the latter to follow and excel.

It would also mean more students from underprivileged areas (who typically end up in lower-tier high schools due to subpar basic education and socio-economic barriers) would find a bridge to connect with students of better privilege and academic standing.

There is credible analysis on how this could improve social class mobility beyond educational success, which I wholly appreciate. For a country like ours with systemic problems in our public school sector, I find this approach rather narrow and unsustainable.

I have already established a few of the challenges that linger in Grade A schools like PRESEC. It suggests that despite the standards of high-achievement in such schools, our students could achieve much more with better structures.

However, to resort to the Minister’s approach would be to reinforce the same classist narrative, which our public education sector has been fraught with for decades.

It is an overt validation of the notion that these few schools are the key to successful academic grounding, and that all and sundry must necessarily be enrolled in them to succeed.

It is essential that political power be used to expand the frontiers of opportunity and access, but not concentrate these within the same old circles of privilege as this policy position does.

While one may argue that this approach increases access for students who hitherto may have been unable to attend these schools, it is important to recognize here that the scope of access remains within the same elite circles of education, instead of replicating that system of ‘quality’ across the country so access is not constrained by geography.

On an even more pragmatic note, for how long will these few schools be able to accommodate the increasing numbers of junior high school graduates, if we are indeed committed to ensuring that more of these students pass their BECE each year?

Our work must start with upgrading quality standards in our public basic schools. That means going beyond infrastructural development to measures like teacher incentives and evaluation, strong systems of accountability, broadening parent-teacher stakeholder relations, mainstreaming mentorship and counseling, and highlighting extra-curricular/ skill development programs.

These same instruments must run through to our public high schools, with a deliberate effort to harness and connect young talents to opportunities. In essence, the smart business student in Sefwi Wiawso should know about, have access to aid and see themselves competing in a program like the Lancaster Business Challenge just like a student in Mfantsipim School.

Similarly, the gifted soccer player in Chereponi should be as aware of sports scholarships that could aid them in furthering their education as the student in Wesley Girls High School. They must not all be wedged into a few schools to realize these prospects.

This is more than an idealist vision- it is a bold choice to embrace inclusive, systemic change over unsustainable, stopgap solutions. We can only achieve this by deliberately breaking down borders of opportunity, such that competition and quality in public education as we have come to know would not be defined by a student’s geographical location in Ghana.

It is our most progressive shot at ensuring that ‘from Gambaga to Accra’; every student can thrive in a country where they feel seen and can aspire to become their best selves.