Sunyani, (B/A), Dec. 11, GNA - The modest achievements of Sunyani Senior High School have impacted positively on the overall development of education in Brong Ahafo Region, Mr Eric Opoku, Deputy Regional Minister, said on Friday.

He said the school had chalked countless successes despite numerous challenges.

Mr Opoku was speaking in Sunyani at the launch of the 50th Anniversary celebration of the establishment of the institution by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister under the Ghana Education Trust policy of the 1950s and early 1960s.

The year-long celebration will reach its climax on September 25, 2010 with a grand durbar of management, staff, students and all stakeholders of the school.

It is under the theme: "50 years of quality education and moral excellence to the youth - SUSEC perspective".

Mr Opoku noted that besides other challenges, the country's educational landscape was beset with problems of enrolment, falling standards, upsurge of indiscipline and immoral behaviour among students and teachers. Mr Opoku said some of these problems were more pronounced in most secondary schools, notably those in the rural communities in the region which reflected in the number of candidates who qualified each year to enter public and private tertiary institutions. He urged heads of second cycle schools, particularly those in the region, to involve both staff and students in the administration of the schools.

This, he said, would make them not to have any cause to engage in strikes and destruction of school properties.

Mr Joseph Awuah, Headmaster of the School, announced that the school had committed itself to maintaining national distinction through discipline, hard work, academic excellence and sound moral training, hence products of the school could be found in all sectors of production in the country. He said, to help solve the problems of the school, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) had started a three-storey classroom block containing 12 classrooms and the PTA conference hall.

Mr Awuah said through the Sunyani Municipal Assembly, the school had started the construction of an ultra-modern assembly hall that was now at the roofing level.

He expressed the hope that the two projects would be helpful to alleviate the pressure on the school's dining hall and library. Mr Awuah said the Computer School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), had resulted in an increased population of the school leading to pressure on accommodation.

The situation, he feared, would cause a stampede in the school if another dormitory block for boys was not built and the present dining hall not expanded before the school re-opens for the commencement of the 2010/2011 academic year.

Mr Awuah appealed to private business concerns, corporate organizations, stakeholders, civil society and non-governmental organizations to come to the aid of the school. Mr J.A Danquah, a former student and a retired tutor of the school, said the school was founded on September 30, 1960 and began with 41 students and four teachers including the Headmaster with nine non-teaching members of staff.

He said the school could now boast of 1,779 students, 71 teachers and 82 non-teaching staff, adding, within the period of 50 years 12,540 students had gone through the school.

Programme lined up for the celebration include lectures, sporting activities, music and cultural festival, debate and quiz competition, blood donation, home coming for old students and thanksgiving service.