PRIVATE SHS READY FOR FRESH STUDENTS (PAGE 42, OCT 13, 2010)

THE Church of Christ Senior High School (SHS), a private educational institution at Adadientem near Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, is putting in place finishing touches to admit fresh students for the current academic year.
This comes at a time SHSs in the public sector are calling for the postponement of the reopening date for fresh students due to accommodation challenges.
When the Daily Graphic visited the school last Tuesday, work on a 500-bed girls’ hostel under construction was nearing completion to provide residential accommodation for first year students.
Started about five months ago, the project was being financed through the school’s own resources.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Cosmos Owusu-Afriyie, said everything was being done to ensure that form one students were accommodated.
He stated that it was the decision of management to keep to the reopening date for fresh students without any option of postponement.
According to him, the school was fully prepared to make the best out of the available facilities.
With the acronym of the school as CHRISEC, it is located in a predominantly rural community and has become a place of rescue for many students who were not selected by the computer system.
 Mr Owusu-Afriyie said through academic and moral discipline, the school had managed to mould many of its students, some of who were in gainful employment, while others were in the universities and other tertiary educational institutions.
“When the students who have been rejected by the computer selection programme come here, they do very well. Because of this, we shall continue to open our doors to them so that they don’t end up becoming street children,” he said.
Mr Owusu-Afriyie stated that there were many talented children in the rural areas, adding that what was important was to devise ways to develop their potentials to enable them to become useful citizens in future.
According to the headmaster, this year alone, 22 students from the school entered the universities, while many others qualified for the polytechnics and colleges of education.
Mr Owusu-Afriyie stated that the school placed emphasis on the admission of girls and that two-thirds of the students were females.
He said the school would continue to tailor its programmes to entice girls in the rural communities.