2nd October 1968.
Finally the day had arrived, the long awaited move to a new campus after 30 years in Krobo Odumasi. It was a Wednesday, which traditionally was not the preferred day of the week on which schools reopened. But this was not any ordinary school reopening. This was the biggie. The big one. EK Datsa was the head honcho. Mr Appeadu (??? Spelling) was the vice head honcho. I must say the significance of the day failed to adequately grab me as I was more consumed by my own achievement so can’t really remember much other than some form four guys who wanted to bully me but later spared me for reasons then unclear to me.
The total number of students in Presec was approximately 360. Each class had only A&B streams. There were not enough students to occupy the five houses. We occupied houses 1-4. House 5 was vacant. The following year when the form 1’s were a lot more (about 140) we moved we spread out and house 5 came into play.
Form 1 students were approximately 72 but no more than 75 of which approximately or at least 50% would have come from the Presbyterian boys boarding schools of Aburi and 27 of us from Akropong and Osu Salem. Presec in those days was like a feeder school for those middle schools. So 2nd turned into 3rd and the term rolled on. Then came the first Saturday and then after every Saturday we went “trotting”. We had to “trot” to atomic barrier and back with the seniors wielding leather belts to ensure no slacking. Not sure if that is still done these days or not. As usual the first Saturday of every school year was set down for the initiation of form 1 students usually involving all those “humiliating” rituals which in the scheme of things was meant to be more fun than “put down”. The dining room was just like a pavilion. No walls. All on this forum not the gale-like winds that blow after 2 when we finish school. Now it seems funny but in those days it was not funny to see your food carried off the table by the strong winds at 2.30 when you were that hungry. So they had to put a wall around it.
We had no dedicated library building. The library hadn’t been built then. The library was in one of those double rooms at the end of the classroom block. No playing fields. Had to play football on laterite encrusted grounds.
Yes every Saturday we did general cleaning.
Snakes. They were everywhere. This is no exaggeration. We would have killed at least one snake each and every day of the first term. I reckon no man had stepped foot on that land since Adam was a boy before the school was put there. Cobras curling and spitting at us. 20-foot pythons, vipers, you name it, they were all there. After studies at 9 when we skipped as we went back to our dormitories just to make sure you didn’t step too long on a snake, just in case. Eventually we all got somewhat blasé.
No gardens. The central quadrangle, all the flower beds around the dormitories, common room and amenities block we dug by hand to depth of at least 30cm. Filled all in with humus. We all had a quota of buckets of humus we had to carry. You had to weed first and scrap the topsoil off to fill the bucket. And that was when most often you came face to face with the snakes. We all got good at spotting the likely snake hideouts and treaded cautiously. This was done almost daily after school. Lots of work in those days.
The food. Well, I don’t think much has changed. The Sunday beans stew and rice was on the menu. Recently read this on the forum with a bit of a grin. Saturday morning makpo- beans and garri. Wednesday lunch red red. The gas oil. Not for students with superior taste buds. Anyway one of my mates liked it so much that he was named “chubby gas”. He could never get enough of the stuff. He drank the stuff like lolly water. Used to call shito “ferti”. Don’t know if they still do. Life was simple. We were not many. We knew each other. There was a lot of care from the masters. It was all positive in the first year.
So I hope I have given a bit of an insight into Presec 1968-1973. If any of my mates are on the forum please feel free to add your bit. After 45 years or so and a few too many bottles of wine I have lost most of my active brain cells.
Warmly
Kofi Adih
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