A fantastic move

Headmaster bans denominational meetings, except one

When Rev. Pearson opened Prempeh College in 1949, he held a one-hour weekly Church service for Prempeh students. The service, which was held on Sunday evenings, was optional for students and was open to entire citizenry of Kumasi.

Despite having only one service for the entire week, the boys were very disciplined and the academic standards were extremely high.

Today, Prempeh boys get 2 church services on Sunday and prayer every weekday morning. Yet, that doesn't seem sufficient for today's Prempeh boy. They also have the Scriptures Union (also called Christian Fellowship, ChriFe) very active as a denominational group for them. However, there are innumerable denominational groups: one each for Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, etc.

In between the morning and evening school-wide mandatory service, the Sofoline boys spend all the hours worshipping again within the specific denominational groups, which detract from their study time.

Luckily, before school closed for the vacation, the headmaster banned denominational meetings at Sofoline in attempt to get the boys to spend more time on their studies.

The boys wrote a petition to the headmaster upon their return from the holidays. Headmaster Owusu-Achiaw allowed them last Sunday to hold only one denominatonal meeting. The SU will now become the sole denominational union group on campus; all the other groups have been placed under this all-important umbrella Christian society.

Prempeh.org believes that this is a brilliant, bold move by the Headmaster. Though Prempeh is a Christian institution, it was not set up for the sole purpose of offering Church services to students; it was rather set up to EDUCATE boys.

However, this view is not popular among students. Senior VY Gyabaah (2004 Senior Prefect) of the University of Ghana has written a dissenting opinion. Prempeh.org had a chat with him on Tuesday, April 25, when this story broke. Let's hear it:

Gyabaah: Senior, I feel that doing away with christianity on campus will serve as a ground for those immoral lifestyles, such as the prostitution we are being accused of patronising.

2003/2004 Senior Prefect Gyabaah Victor Yeboah, currently at the University of Ghana, follows Prempeh proceedings closely.

Gyabaah: That is great but not in these days that indiscipline and immoral acts are on the increase. The sort of atrocities that students commit these days are not comparable to those days. What Rev. Pearson did over 50 years ago will not work in today's Ghana!

prempeh.org: Cutting down on uneccesary church activities is not tantamount to asking boys to embrace unholy acts! Senior Gyabaah, there can be a 2 church services on Sunday and that will be enough to enforce Christian values all throughout the week. Goodness, we can have church 50 times a day and if people want to commit atrocities they still will!!! Don't you agree?

Gyabaah: People are laughing because the headmaster has stopped the meetings and I hope when school reopens, he will ask them to do it again. He should rather cancel the GUNSA activities and trips to YAGSS.

prempeh.org: Who said spending countless hours in a chapel instead of a classroom will put a stop to unholy acts? What research showed that? Where is the statistics to back it up? When a headmaster, senior housemaster and chaplain are ALL loved and respected by the boys, church service can be only 1 hr a week, and people will love it so much they will behave, because of respect they have for them. That is how Headmaster Osae did it. Can we say that anybody respects this Senior Housemaster?

Gyabaah: We are all worried about this more than anything. Prempeh is the first school in Ghana to cancel all church activities Instead of him working on important things in his administration, he is fighting against God, something that even former headmaster Sadam couldnt even do. You said that the headmaster can turn things around when he is respected but here is the case that the authorities are not respected. Students greet and show respect out of fear of them and not out of true respect, it is the christian leaders who are holding the school now. That is the truth. If it were left to this administration, the school would collapse. The christian leaders are disciplined, well mannered. They tuck in their shirts like the good old days.

prempeh.org: Senior Victor, we have a morning service everyday during which time we pray, read a bible and sing hymns, don't we? That is 5 mini-church services. If we add 2 more big services to it on Sundays, Senior Gyabaah, it should be sufficient. Right?

Gyabaah: In the mornings, it isn't church service; we go there to tell them what is going on in the school and before that we pray and advise them. That isn't all since the African mind is something that needs to be reinforced with information day in day out. In your days, senior, you were very intelligent, serious, well-mannered, etc., but these days are different. We have bad and devilish students who need to be exorcised before they can reason and that is what the revivals, church meetings are there to do. We seek the spiritual upliftment of not only students but the whole school.

prempeh.org: Thank you Senior Gyabaah. In summary, the headmaster is saying that the boys should concentrate on their books more than the church activities and that the sunday service is enough to give them spiritual upliftment. You say we need more hours in the chapel.

Prempeh News Volume XXIV | Prempeh News Archive