Accra, Jan. 25, GNA - Seventy year old Odorgonno Senior High School is to become a first class senior high school in the country by 2012. The school is embarking on infrastructure expansion as well as strengthening its teaching and non-teaching staff to match its quest for excellence.

Mrs. Mary Amankwa, Headmistress, who made the pledge at a thanksgiving service to launch its 70th anniversary celebration in Accra on Monday said: "Anything that has life grows and any God ordained vision progresses, so is Odorgonno Senior High School". She said the school was recently upgraded to Category 'A' status by the Ghana Education Service and must progress to take the lead in the field of academic.

Mrs. Amankwa noted that the school had excellent academic record and was the only school in the country that provided eight players for the Senior National Team - Black Stars in their match against Super Eagles of Nigeria in 1992.

She said a boarding system introduced in 2009 now had 800 students, made up of 400 boys and 400 girls and appealed to government to assist authorities to construct more dormitories to accommodate more students. Mrs. Amankwa appealed to government for assistance to rehabilitate the deplorable road network in the school. Ms. Sherry Ayokor Botchway, Member of Parliament for Weija, advised the students to eschew ethnocentrism and seek the good of Ghana as they utilised the opportunities at their disposal in the school for personal and national development.

King Tackie-Tawiah III, Ga Mantse, an old student expressed concern about the unstable nature of the country's educational policies for politics.

Mr. Sheriff Dodoo, Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, advised the students to study hard and be discipline. He said the assembly would assist the school with the provision of washrooms and other facilities. It was established as a boys' school on January 25, 1940 by Mr. J.T. Leigh, a Sierra Leonean, Mr. Jerome Acquah and Mr. C. A. M. Sackeyfio both Ghanaians and as a co-education in 1993. The school has 2,020 students with 950 of them being girls, 1,070 boys and 100 teachers. 25 Jan. 10