SPEECH DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM OTOO ELLIS, VICE-

CHANCELLOR OF KNUST AS GUEST SPEAKER TO THE 34TH ANNIVERSARY

AND 2ND SPEECH AND PRIZE-GIVING DAY OF SIMMS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
ON THE THEME “ACHIEVING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: THE ROLE OF
STAKEHOLDERS” ON SATURDAY, 19TH NOVEMBER, 2011 AT 9.30AM

Chairman
Honourable District Chief Executive
District Director of Education
Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors
Headmistress and Staff
Nananom
Parents and Teachers
Old Boys and Girls
Distinguished Invited Guests
Members of the Press
Students
Ladies and Gentlemen

I bring you warm greetings from staff and students of the

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST) and to say that I am very happy to join you in

1
celebrating the joy of this occasion of your School’s 34th
anniversary and speech and prize-giving day.

Mr. Chairman, I would want to commend the Chairman and

Members of the Board of Governors, the Headmistress,
Teachers, Parents, Old Students, Staff and Students of this
School for the maintenance of a very nice and clean school
environment. I have been impressed with the level of
cleanliness of your School’s surroundings. Secondly, please
accept my congratulations for the various academic successes
achieved thus far. As an administrator in a tertiary institution, I
am fully aware of some of the various challenges you are
confronted with on a daily basis in your attempt to train the
nation’s youth into responsible adulthood. I would also like to
give special commendations to all the teachers of this school.
Being a teacher myself, I know that a teacher must necessarily
and at all times be patient, must inspire, must develop talent,
kindle interest and help in moulding the character of the
students you teach. My fellow dear teachers, I salute you all
for the wonderful job you are doing for Simms Senior High
School, in particular and mother Ghana as a whole.

2
On the occasion of your School’s 34th anniversary, I
congratulate all stakeholders of the School for their effort in
nurturing the School from its formative years to its present
state. My special appreciation goes to all past and present
Headmasters/Headmistresses, teachers and staff. Without your
sense of dedication, selflessness, professionalism and
initiative, Simms would not have been what it is today.
Through your effort, you have helped in shaping many brains
and, thereby, brought meaning and purpose to many lives.

Mr. Chairman, there is little doubt today about the fact that our
nation’s quest to develop and remain truly independent
basically depends on education. The quality of the human
resource base of every country is undoubtedly one of the most
valued and important resources through which that country can
accelerate development and achieve competitive advantage in
this global world of ours that is characterised by competition,
information communication technology and high level
research, among others. Education fine tunes students’
creativity, their level of insight, and their analytical skills to
issues and situations. Education generally acquaints students

3
with unique ideas and stimulates their curiosity. This provides
students with opportunities for personal enrichment and better
future careers.

In our quest to educate and achieve academic excellence, there

are several stakeholders who have various roles to play
without which the quality of our education would be greatly
challenged. In this direction, I would want to use a few
minutes to address some of the roles identifiable stakeholders
have to play in order for us to achieve academic excellence.
The first stakeholder I would want to talk about in our quest to
achieve academic excellence is the parent/guardian. As parents
and guardians, we have a primary responsibility to provide
decent accommodation, a study area or room for the child and
provide them with balanced diet for their proper physical and
mental growth.

Parents also have a role in planning the educational

programme or course a ward should study in school with the
assistance of an educational counsellor. Parents again have a
role in guiding their ward(s) into appropriate educational

4
institutions, taking the financial commitments and following
up on their monitoring and assessment with their teachers and
facilitators to make the child independent and self sufficient.
As guardians, we also need to inculcate good values and
develop a sound moral character in the child. Parents should
also have time to listen and to discuss with their children, their
problems and keep watch on their activities. From this, we can
see clearly that there is a lot expected of us as
parents/guardians.

In a similar dimension, the role of a teacher in achieving

academic excellence is profound and multi-faceted. The
teacher is an academic, a character trainer, caregiver, a role
model or mentor and a leader, among many others. The
teacher has a role to play as a source of credible and up-to-date
knowledge, has a role about the moral discipline and
upbringing of students, should serve as a motivator or
facilitator, must be a counsellor/psychologist to be able to
decipher the problems of students and offer solutions,
monitoring and facilitation of teaching and learning processes
and other extracurricular activities that students get involved

5
in. Teachers also bear the responsibility of teaching and
serving as source of knowledge to students. From this, it is
evident that the role of the teacher in achieving quality
education cannot be short changed and any compromise on the
teacher’s part can derail any quality education system.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, another

important stakeholder I would want to identify in our quest to
achieve academic excellence is the Headmaster or
Headmistress. No scheme of educational reconstruction will
produce the desired result, unless it is administered with vision
and efficiency. The person who plans with vision and executes
with responsibility is the headmaster or headmistress. In fact,
it has been said in some quarters that the school is a
lengthened shadow of its headmaster or headmistress.
Everything in the school such as books, buildings, furniture,
laboratory and equipment, students and staff are managed by
the headmaster or headmistress.

In addition to this managerial role, the headmaster or

headmistress is traditionally known to be a supervisor of both

6
teaching and non-teaching staff. S/he is tasked with enforcing
school disciplinary roles, codes of ethics and preventing
potential safety violations. S/he has a role to manage the day-
to-day operations of the school, co-ordinate with the school’s
governing board, seek and secure funding for school projects,
speak on behalf of the school and give strategic direction to
the school generally. The headmaster or headmistress is
directly responsible for the implementation of educational
policy and in our quest to achieve academic excellence, the
headmaster or headmistress’ role should not be downplayed in
any way. This in short explains why the headmaster or
headmistress should be involved in the process right from the
beginning (admission) to the end i.e. till the student leaves the
school.

The other stakeholder of major importance in this our

enterprise is the Government. We all know that, the overall
strategic direction of our country’s educational system reflects
the vision of the prevailing government, vis-à-vis our
development aspirations. In our setting, the government has a
huge and an unparallel role to play towards quality education.

7
Government has a role to provide education policy and
direction, build and maintain educational infrastructure,
remunerate educational workers including teachers, train
educational workers, maintain a balance between the poor and
the privileged in society and provide teaching and learning
materials.

The Government also has the responsibility to see to the

provision and proper maintenance of school infrastructure that
has the capacity to provide a conducive environment for
teaching and learning. In fact, the role of the Government in
ensuring that we have quality education for national
development is inexhaustive and that explains why the
Government is blamed for every problem at the educational
sector.

Even as we highlight the critical role of Government, we also

need to appreciate the needed contribution of the business
community sometimes referred to as the private sector.
Business as part of their social and community responsibility
should contribute in cash and in kind to the building of these

8
schools since in the long run, they are the end users of the
products. This is even more important for businesses within
the catchment area of the school.

The alumni of every school must also always learn to pay back
for what they received from their alma mater. The success and
popularity of every school apart from all other factors depends
on the quality of their alumni and the performance of the
school. Therefore, the alumni of this School must make it one
of their responsibilities to support the activities and growth of
Simms Senior High School, their alma mater.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the last stakeholder I

would want to mention here is the student who is at the
receiving end of the entire process. A student must of
necessity learn, do class assignments, research, do home-work,
write examinations, must attend lectures or classes and
participate in class activities fully, keep notes of lectures for
reference purposes, embrace and fully participate in well
defined extra-curricular activities, show courtesy and obey
school regulations aimed at propelling them to become

9
responsible citizens in the future. The student, therefore, ought
to be studios and discipline.

As I have said earlier, students reflect the entire educational

system as they are the end products. In view of this, the quality
or otherwise of the entire educational system is mirrored by
the attitude, behaviour and performance of students or
graduates. It is in view of this that policy makers must be
conscious of the impact any educational reform has on the
future of participants.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, it is my considered view

that, success in any educational system is the result of good
partnership between all stakeholders such as teachers, students,
the government, civil society and parents/guardians. It is,
therefore, imperative that all stakeholders will identify and
play their respective roles very well so that the standards of
our educational system can improve for the better.

Finally, I would want to once more congratulate the

headmistress, teaching and non-teaching staff for their effort in

10
shaping the future of these young ones. It is my hope that you
will commit yourselves to every good effort to better the
fortunes of Simms Senior High School, named after one of
Ghana’s illustrious sons.

I thank you all for your kind audience.

11