Assisi Girls SHS launches 70th anniversary as Joyce Bawah Mogtari, stakeholders champion girl-child education

Hundreds of alumnae, traditional authorities, educators, and students converged on the campus of St. Francis of Assisi Girls’ Senior High School in Jirapa on Saturday, October 17, to mark the institution’s 67th birthday, launch its upcoming 70th anniversary celebrations, and hold its annual Speech and Prize Giving Day.

The Franciscan Old Girls Association (FOGA) homecoming drew old students from across Ghana and Nigeria, celebrating decades of educational excellence while spotlighting urgent infrastructural bottlenecks facing the Catholic girls’ institution.

The multi-event celebration, held under the theme “67 Years of Nurturing Leaders and Inspiring Excellence: Time to Retrace Our Steps”, served as both a celebration of institutional milestones and an appeal to address systemic overcrowding, teacher shortages, and resource deficits.

Delivering the keynote address as Special Guest of Honour, Special Aide and Presidential Adviser to the President of Ghana, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, urged students to recognise the immense potential of girls’ education and draw inspiration from groundbreaking women in leadership.

Reflecting on her own time as a student on the Jirapa campus, Mogtari recounted how transferring to the school helped rebuild her academic path and formed the bedrock of her legal and political career.

“I return to this great school not merely as your Special Guest of Honour, but as a proud daughter of this institution. I mean, who would have imagined all those years ago that one day, I, Joyce Bawah, would return here as a senior lawyer with expertise in maritime law, founder of a law firm, an entrepreneur, and Senior Presidential Adviser and Special Aide to the President of the Republic of Ghana?” she said.

Mogtari conveyed warm felicitations from President John Dramani Mahama, emphasising his administration’s commitment to advancing educational access for young women.

Pointing to national and global strides in female representation, she cited Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as living proof that glass ceilings can be shattered.

“For the first time since independence, and nearly 70 years after Ghana’s independence, we now have a female Vice President: Her Excellency Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. Her story tells every girl in Ghana that no ambition is too great simply because she is female. If Ghana can have its first female Vice President, then surely, the curtain draws closer to us electing our first female President,” she stressed.

Addressing the gathering on the state of the school, the Headmistress of St. Francis of Assisi Girls SHS, Anastasia Kaarawo, detailed the school’s academic achievements alongside severe infrastructural distress.

Kaarawo highlighted that the institution, which began in September 1959 with just 12 girls and two teachers, has grown into a Category A institution with an active student population of 1,341. She reported an 88% overall pass rate in the 2025 WASSCE, with candidates currently awaiting the results of the 510 candidates who sat the 2026 examination.

However, the headmistress lamented that exponential enrolment growth has overwhelmed existing facilities.

“If you go to the dormitories, it is overcrowded. Every available space, like the box rooms and laundries, has been converted into dormitories. In the classrooms right now, the first years who are reporting do not have furniture to sit on. They are sitting on benches, and the benches are not even enough for them,” Kaarawo revealed.

She listed critical shortfalls including deficits in toilet facilities, staff accommodation, science and home economics practical equipment, textbooks for the new curriculum, and teacher shortages in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Integrated Science. Kaarawo also shared a harrowing logistical challenge, recounting an incident where a school pickup conveying the body of a deceased security personnel caught fire in the Jirapa market square, forcing authorities to transfer the remains into an aboboyaa (motorized tricycle).

She appealed to government, FOGA, and corporate bodies to assist in roofing and completing an ongoing chapel project, as well as providing logistical and classroom support.

Reinforcing the school administration’s call, Former National President of FOGA, Fati Bodua Seidu—who delivered an address on behalf of current FOGA National President, Amina Abugdanpoka Kaguah—emphasized that alumnae affection for their alma mater must manifest in practical intervention.

“All but one of our dormitories were built decades ago, but today accommodate almost three times the number of students they were originally intended to house. Some of our girls have had to sleep on the floor, on damaged or inadequate mattresses, and in spaces crowded between old bed frames. That should concern all of us here. And this is why FOGA has decided that our affection for this school cannot exist only in memories; it must translate into action,” Seidu stated.

Seidu charged the students to complement the investments made by parents and teachers with personal discipline and academic rigor.

“A new dormitory alone will not make you successful. A new classroom will not study for you. A comfortable bed cannot write your examinations. Confidence is not arrogance; ambition is not something for which a woman should apologize; excellence is not reserved for somebody else,” she told the student body.

Chairing the event, the Paramount Chief of the Jirapa Traditional Area, Naa Dinaa Donglabong Ganaa III, commended the founding Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) and traditional ancestors for establishing the premier girls’ secondary school in northern Ghana.

Naa Ganaa III challenged FOGA and development partners to evolve from sporadic reunion gatherings into an active institutional development network providing structured scholarships, internships, and mentorship.

“Retracing our steps must not mean walking backwards. It means returning to our roots so that we can move forward with a clearer sense of purpose. FOGA must be more than a name, a membership list, or an organization that gathers only for anniversaries and homecomings. It must become a living network of opportunity,” the Paramount Chief stated.

Awards were presented to outstanding students and staff across various disciplines, with the Managing Director of MyTURN Ltd and Lesken Enterprise presenting awards of tablets and, on behalf of the Dr. Kenneth Aneweneh Foundation, sponsored prizes for 15 students, cash rewards for awardees, and hosting a celebratory homecoming dinner.