Great institutions
Names play important roles in the lives of persons and institutions. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts has, in many surveys, been voted the best university in the world. The famous university in New England, America, has produced eight presidents of the United States, including Barack Hussein Obama Jr.
Harvard University is also the alma mater of six presidents of the World Bank, including the incumbent, Dr Jim Yong Kim. Harvard University has other influential alumni, including Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
An important factor in Harvard’s pre-eminence is the foundation of the university. The person after whom the university was named (Reverend John Harvard) was a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was an intellectually gifted individual who obtained a MA degree from the Emmanuel College at Cambridge University in 1635. The combination of spirituality and academic excellence of John Harvard contributes to the prominence of America’s pioneer tertiary institution.
One of the oversubscribed second-cycle institutions in Ghana is the Prempeh College. Former President John Agyekum Kufuor obtained his secondary education at Prempeh College from 1954 to 1958. The college was named after Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, the 14th Asantehene.
The 14th occupant of the golden stool was a great monarch. Among others, he unified the modern Asante state. He skilfully kept the Asante state during the heady days of the CPP and UP politics. It was during his reign that Kumasi and Ashanti Region saw great transformation.The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the Kumasi Polytechnic, the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, the race course at Bantama (now defunct) and many of the first and second cycle institutions of fame in Ashanti came into being during his reign.
Population variability
Prempeh College has gone through changes in the past 60 years. An important factor in the college’s success story depended on the size of the population. The 50 students admitted to begin the college in 1949 have exceeded 2,000 boys in the 2013/14 academic year. In the 1979/80 school year, Mr M.K. Atiemo, the then headmaster of the college, admitted 123 students to three classes in form one. The entire student population then, about 850 (and some girls in the Sixth Form), could be accommodated in the old assembly hall.
The reality of the matter is that the debutant class of 2013 is more than the entire student population then (Form One to Upper Six). Until about 1999, when the alumni of Prempeh College initiated and built the ninth house of residence for students (Opoku Ware II House), there were eight houses for students in the boarding system. Management of the college was less of a challenge when the student population was relatively small.
In 1985/86, the college had 49 full-time and seven part-time teachers and national service persons. In 2013/14, the college has over 120 full-time teachers and national service persons. In the early 1960s when students numbered some 450, there was one assistant headmaster in the person of Dr T.A. Osae. In 1986/87 when the student population was 1,076, Nana Adom Frimpong and Mr James Akurang Boamah were the assistant headmasters. During the college’s Golden Jubilee in 1999, Messrs E.K, Frimpong and A.A. Kodua were the assistant headmasters.
For about a decade now, Prempeh College has had three assistant headmasters due to increased population.
The role of teachers
An important factor in the success of Prempeh College depended on the teaching staff. Majority of them then lived on campus. Each teacher had a pigeon hole in which daily supply of the Daily Graphic and other materials were placed. There was a bar where teaching and other senior staff members bought drinks and discussed pertinent issues. To encourage higher performance, the college administration gave soft loans to tutors to procure private vehicles.
The frontage of tutors’ bungalows contained boards on which their names were written. There were two tennis courts where tutors played for strength and for fun. Unfortunately, the tennis courts were demolished to make way for the construction of the Opoku Ware II House. Similarly, the bar was also dismantled to make way for the construction of a facility for students.
Before 1987, the college had four classes each in forms four and five. Two of the classes (4A and 4L) were for students who offered programmes in General Arts, Business and Visual Arts. 4S and 4M were for students in science.
They progressed to 5A and 5L for the Arts and 5S and 5M for those who offered science.
The Lower Sixth was made up of two classes - L6Arts and L6Science. There were equally two classes in Upper Sixth - U6Arts and U6Science. In the fifth form, there was an average of 45 students in a class, while the sixth form had an average of 35 students in a class.
Literary life
Students of Prempeh College wrote and received letters on a regular basis. Each house had a post boy. During the long break period (around 12 noon), the college truck brought letters from the post office at Adum. The administrative assistant in charge sorted the letters and gave them to the post boys. In those days, a feature of students’ happiness was to receive letters. In order to give a good account of themselves in their reply, boys ensured they wrote befitting language.
Reading was a sure way to acquire the needed vocabulary and grammar in this literary expedition. Reading and writing were important sub-cultures at Prempeh College. Books authored by Barbara Cartland (which were abundantly stocked in the college library), the Hardy Boys and the African Writers series, among other printed matter were great companions of Prempeh students. The advent of the electronic media has unfortunately had a toll on the reading and writing culture of students.
Situation of old
Every house of residence for students had a common room. In these common rooms, there were lockers where boys kept books and other items and table tennis boards. In the inner common rooms, there was a set of furniture where students received visitors during the accepted times. On the walls were wooden boards which contained names of past prefects of the house. Students retired to these common rooms for relaxation. Again, house meetings took place at the common rooms. Increased student population has resulted in the conversion of the common rooms into dormitories.
In times past, the dormitories allocated to senior students had moveable lockers in which students kept books and on which they placed their trunks or suitcases. In these senior dormitories, there were tables fixed to the walls to help students in their reading and writing.
Until the 1980s, Prempeh College operated an external laundry system. Each student in the boarding house had a laundry number. Students’ clothes were collected on Fridays, taken to the laundry and returned on Mondays. Every house had a canteen where stationeries and edibles (usually pastries) were sold. Some student canteen keepers were enterprising enough to make profit in their operation. The profits so-earned contributed to the budget of the annual house parties and house photographs before the fifth and sixth formers completed their G.C.E. ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level examinations.
Up until the 1990s, mid-term holidays were bohemian at Prempeh College. Boys were at liberty to go to town on Saturdays after morning inspection. The only caveat was that they had to return to school by 5 p.m. for the roll to be called. The festival of nine lessons and carols which was introduced in 1961 by Mr Arthur T. Clark (the last expatriate Headmaster of the college), was a cherished event on the college calendar. Students adored the Bible readings in Latin, Spanish, French, German, Italian etc. Probably, the most popular and emotional song for all generations of students of Prempeh College has been the two-part, six-stanza hymn astutely written by Henry James Buckoll in MHB 870.
Students of Prempeh College came from all corners of Ghana. That possibly accounted for the college’s epithet, Amanfoo – from various towns and places in Ghana and beyond. Yes, the college had a handful of expatriate students from Nigeria, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Syria, Lebanon etc. Some students were of mixed race (half caste). They were largely day students. Prempeh College was indeed diverse and heterogeneous. The term fees paid by students included what was called pocket money; which amount was collected from the bursar’s office by housemasters a day before vacation to be given to students. The rational behind the pocket money regime was that in the event where students did not have money to travel for the holidays, the pocket money was a welcome panacea for any liquidity crunch. For many a student who resided in the city of Kumasi and its environs, the pocket money regime was a fantastic bonanza.
The writer is an alumnus and tutor at Prempeh College
Nice article
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