By Evans Worlanyo Ameamu
Anloga (VR), April 11, GNA – Zion College (Zico), a second circle institutions in Anloga district of the Volta region, has held second edition of academic excellence awards ceremony to honour some hardworking and deserving students and staff for 2023-2024 academic year.
The move was to motivate, encourage and applaud exceptional staff and students for their hard work and dedication to the improvements and progress of Zion College.
Madam Nutifafa Abla Kwawukume, the Headmistress of the school, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said that the awards was to distinguish and celebrate the achievements of students and staff who have excelled in various academic disciplines.
“The current management team has recently instituted various programmes to transform the school, it is our goal to set award day aside as an annual event to motivate students as well as staff that merit it. It will also inspire others to improve learning outcomes to attain the school’s target, she said.
She said the school set ambitious goals that aimed to recognise as one of the top ‘A’ grade schools in Ghana and were focused on improving the WASSCE performance to increase the number of students progressing to tertiary institutions and foster healthy competition among all learners.
Madam Kwawukume explained that the Academic Excellence Award Day played a crucial role in the journey of change which did not only celebrate students’ achievement but also inspired others to strive for academic excellence which contributed to overall academic improvement.
“As part of our comprehensive academic policy, we have implemented the ‘Minimum Grade C6 strategy’ and other initiatives, this strategy in particular sets a high standard for our students, encouraging them to aim for excellence in their academic pursuit.”
She said that other objective of the award was to cover great milestones in term of academic work by 2027 when the school would celebrate its 90th anniversary and the performance are expected to improve while the management has also put in mechanism to monitor and track all students’ work systematically.
Madam Kwawukume said that the awards were merited based on the performance of the first and second semester learning outcomes during the 2023/2024 academic year and the results were displayed consistently on the notice board for all to observe to trigger students to put in maximum effort towards academic work.
She said that the categories of the awards include overall best WASSCE performance for both genders, overall best SHS 2 and 1 students as well as excellence awards in all the various elective and core subjects’ areas.
She said, “according to the 2024 WASSCE analysis, out of the 742 candidates presented for the examination, 40.6 per cent (301 students) obtained A1 to C6 and 60 per cent (515 students) qualified to progress to the tertiary level. The best aggregate was 8, and it was an improvements of 2023 results which 425 out of 740 got aggregate A1 to C6, with the best aggregate of 10.”
Some staff and student awardees GNA interacted with, expressed excitement over the wards and pledged to work harder to raise the flags of Zion college high among various secondary schools in Volta region and the entire country.
They urged teachers, stakeholders, corporate organisations and old students at the school to continue with the various forms of support to improve proper learning and teaching environment for better results and future.
GNA observed that about 40 students and 10 staff received various forms of awards which include textbooks, plaques, computers, certificates, among others.
GNA
MA/KOA