Mankessim SHS gets new head

STORY: FROM MAGDALENE SEY, MANKESSIM, C/R

Few weeks after preventing the former headmaster of Ghana National College, Mr. Robert Koomson Barnes, to head the school, staff and management of Mankessim Senior Technical High School have inducted Mr. Kingsley Kwaku Attah as the new headmaster.

Mr. Attah’s induction came as a surprise during the 20th anniversary and 5th speech and prize giving day of the school over the weekend.

Although both students and teachers did not know him, he was warmly welcomed with a thunderous applause when he was introduced, contrary to the reception accorded Mr. Koomson Barnes, whom they knew but was flatly rejected and virtually chased out of the school’s premises on the day he was supposed to sign his appointment letter to fully assume duty as head of the school.

Mr. Koomson Barnes, who was transferred to Mankessim from Ghana National College by the Ghana Education Service (GES), was not allowed by teachers to sign his letter at Mankessim and was also rejected at Edinaman Senior High School in Elmina for the way he mismanaged Ghana National when he was head.

Information gathered by Today has it that Mr. Koomson Barnes was rejected at Mankessim in retaliation to the treatment he meted out to some teachers he eventually sacked at Ghana National College and are now teaching at Mankessim Technical School.

Mr. Koomson Barnes was reported to have changed nine accountants and eight domestic bursars within seven years he served at National.

He also reportedly sacked one Emmanuel Ewusie Annan, a board member and Michael Edumadze, a Physical Education (PE) teacher when he was at National. The two are now at Mankessim SHS.

The former National Democratic Congress (NDC) women’s organiser, Rebecca Forson, who was a matron at the school, was also axed by Mr. Koomson Barnes without any tangible reason until her appointment at Oguaa Senior Technical School.

The paper also gathered that Mr. Koomson Barnes who has few years to retire is still in a quandary as to where to go since he is rejected everywhere he is posted to.

The new headmaster who has taught for 30 years until his appointment was teaching at the Wesley College of Education, Kumasi.

He succeeded Madam Agnes Hawkson who left in February this year to Swedru Senior High School.

On his vision, Mr. Kwaku Attah promised to develop a disciplinary institution to enable both students and staff to contribute their quota to promote discipline in the school for excellence.

The occasion was graced by the Member of Parliament (MP) in the area and deputy Minister for Local Government-designate, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansa, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Education Director, Mr. Obotan Larbi and the Municipal Chief Executive
(MCE) of the area, Mr. Henry Kweku Hayfron, as well as the queen mother of Mankessim Traditional Area, Nana Ama Amissah.