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MFANTSIPIM SCHOOL

The Methodist Church in Ghana strongly believed in education as a means of laying a good foundation for a better social and spiritual life. However by the end of the third quarter of the 19th century, the progress made by the church in education was extremely inadequate. The few schools it had were not well organized and staffed and were only at the elementary school level. This put the Methodist Church in a poor light as compared with the other Christian Churches in the country especially the Basel Mission, which then operated a neat, stable and effective educational system of primary, middle, boarding and trade schools with a teacher/ministerial Training College at Akropong-Akwapim In 1874, Rev. T. R. Picot, Chairman of the Methodist Church in Ghana, wrote to his Missionary Committee in England and stated that:

“Our mission is not at all well spoken of by the people in general or by the sister missionary   societies, because we have not in the past paid sufficient attention to the education of our people”

The Methodist Church, rightly took a decision at its Synod for the establishment of a high school, and on Monday 3rd April 1876, the Wesleyan High School opened in Cape Coast as the first secondary school in the country. The school started with 17 students and James Picot, an 18 year old College of Preceptors Certificate holder as its first Headmaster. Among the foundation students were John Mensah Sarbah and J. E. Casely Hayford who later played leading roles in the social and political landscape of Ghana.

Between 1886 and 1900 the school went through difficult times, unsuitable accommodation and inadequacy of qualified staff were thorny problems for the institution. In 1891 the Wesleyan High School assumed the name of the Wesleyan Collegiate School but this did not improve the fortunes of the school. In the circumstances, John Mensah Sarbah, who was then playing the leading role in the affairs of the country, together with his Methodist compatriots, took a decisive step to ameliorate the circumstances of the school. They formed the company known as the “Fante Public Schools Limited” with a view to advancing higher education through the establishment and improvement of higher educational institutions in the country. The company set up in April, 1905, a high school called Mfantsipim which was distinct from the Wesleyan Collegiate School.

Both the Wesleyan Collegiate School and Mfantsipim experienced serious difficulties through inadequacy of resources for each institution, and unhealthy rivalry between the two schools. To save the situation, the Wesleyan Collegiate School and the new institution, Mfantsipim, were amalgamated in July, 1905 under the overall management of the Methodist Church.

In the amalgamation, it was agreed that the combined and single secondary institution should be given the name Mfantsipim. Mr. John Mensah Sarbah gave the school its motto “Dwen Hwɛ Kan” which, translated into plain English, means “think and look ahead” John Mensah Sarbah and his colleagues did not want the name “Mfantsipim” to be broken into syllables to indicate “Mfantsefo Apem.” They were men of foresight who thought of the greater future needs of the country as a whole and for that reason, to them “Mfantsipim” meant the soul of the people and they wanted it to be accepted as such. To them it was in the School that the souls of the people of Ghana would mature.

By the end of 1907, however, amalgamation had not provided the panacea that was expected from it. When on 12th November, 1907 Reverend W.T. Balmer of the Methodist Church and principal of Richmond College, Ministerial training college in Freetown, Sierra Leone, arrived in Cape Coast on a tour of educational inspection to help improve secondary education in the West African countries, he found  only eight (8) boys at Mfantsipim. The boys were meeting for mutual help as the school was without staff and Headmaster. Reverend Balmer named the boys the “Faithful Eight” and accepted to stay and take charge of the school as Headmaster. During the centenary celebrations of Mfantsipim in 1976, a monument was erected between the Administration Block and the Assembly Hall to perpetuate the memory of the faithful eight. From the time it was moved from Mount Hope, near Victoria Park in 1910 to present, Mfantsipim has maintained an enviable leading role in secondary education in Ghana and West Africa. During the period, it enjoyed the services and leadership of two distinguished Headmasters: Reverend R.A. Lockhart, and Mr. F.L. Bartels, a Ghanaian. Reverend Lockhart was Headmaster from February, 1925 to March, 1936. He was tireless in his fight to get the British colonial government of the Gold Coast to accept responsibility for providing secondary education for an increasing number of the country’s children as sine qua non for the country’s progress. Through completing a £40,000 building programme he was able to move the school from Mount Hope to Kwabotwe with its enlarged intake in 1931.

His constitution of Mfantsipim School Committee became the basis of many school constitutions in the country. As an educational administrator and innovator, he introduced uniforms for secondary school pupils; he substituted the single school session for the former two sessions of the day; he replaced the two-term school year with one of the three terms. He grasped and used to the full benefits of Africanisation by appointing to the school Staff his old boys to whom he offered facilities for in-service training and correspondence course to qualify as graduates.

Mr. Bartels, who became the first lay and African Headmaster of Mfantsipim from September, 1949 to April, 1961, was one of the Lockhart era. There was a decidedly improved official policy in the matter of secondary education when Bartels took over Mfantsipim and took full advantage of the opportunity this offered him. He applied himself with intelligence, foresight and assiduity to the urgent question of expansion and development.

From the beginning of the school when Picot was Headmaster, until now, Mfantsipim has played a noble role in giving service and leadership to this country and the world at large. The service of the old boys of the school to the community is a measure of the value and worth of the school, and in this regard, Mfantsipim holds a distinguished position in Ghana. The founding fathers of Mfantsipim desired that the school should inculcate in its boys mental discipline, mental honesty, moral courage and above all the character, which is worthy of the Christian foundation of the school.

The record of Mfantsipim is replete with achievements of the school and of its boys which exemplify these qualities but of course, it is not suggested, that every boy passing through Mfantsipim becomes automatically imbued with this combination of qualities. The story of Mfantsipim is one of ups and downs especially in the areas of academic performance as well as infrastructural development. From 1961 till now, all the Headmasters, Rev. W.G.M. Brandful (1961-1963), J.W. Abruquah (1963-1970), O.K. Monney (1970-1976), H.V. Acquaye-Baddoo (1976-1980), B.K. Dontwi (1980-1997), C.K. Ashun (1997-2008), K.M. Edjah (2008-2014) and J.K.A Simpson (2104 -), all of them old boys, lent themselves to the task of re-sensitizing both students and staff in their bid to maintain and improve the standards set by those who came before them.

The history goes on…….