Vicande School, a private basic school in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi came first in the Kumasi metropolitan ranking of the 2007 Basic Education Certificate Examination. Previous records have also shown that the School has been performing exceptionally well in the previous rankings and topping the chat since 1996 when the school made its first appearance in the BECE.

The School also received a National Basic Schools’ Excellence Award for being ranked as number 7 in the Academic Excellence Award in 2007.

The School presented 91 candidates with almost all the students scoring a mean of 6.05 aggregate putting the school on top of 351 schools made up of both private and public schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. Hill Top School came second followed by SSNIT Presby Model School with a mean pass of 6.40 and 6.50 respectively.

Statistics has also indicated that students from Vicande School have been attending the well endowed Senior High Schools in the country and have been performing creditably. The school according to sources has attracted the acceptance of schools like Wesley Girls High School, Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, Legon, Prempeh College, Opoku Ware School and Yaa Asantewaa Secondary School. The rest are St Louis Secondary School, St Monica’s Girls Secondary School and Achimota School.

The rankings were contained in an official document and a copy made available to the press by the Kumasi Metropolitan Education Directorate.

The Kumasi Metro Education Director, Mr. Joseph Kwabena Onyina said he could not immediately tell what was behind the success story of Vicande School but he was aware they had been topping the chat since the school made its first appearance into the BECE but fell to Hill Top School in 2006 and regained its first position in 2007.

Mr Patrick Adusei the headmaster of the school, in an interview told the the press that he would attribute the success story of the school to hard work and commitment on the part of teachers besides; they have been nurtured to have the interest of the pupils at heart thereby ensuring that every pupil is able to fit into the School’s curriculum irrespective of the child’s background or level of thinking and understanding. He also said effective supervision of teachers and work of the children had also been a major contributing factor.

“We pay extra attention to the pupils as soon as they get to the junior high school so by the time they get to the final class they will have completed the syllabus; they only undergo intensive revision at the final class,” he stressed.

Mr Adusei said he was poised to maintain the position by continuing to ensure that quality education is offered to all and also maintain the high academic standard of school. He expressed optimism by topping the chat at the national level.