REFLECTIONS FOR SANTACLAUSIANS

(W. C. TANDOH, Executive-Chairman of the West Coast Group of Companies,
was the Guest Speaker at the Speech and Prize Giving Day at Adisadel College
on March 12, 1977. He spoke at length on Education as a training for life.
The sentiments expressed in his speech are of perennial interest and value
to students as well as parents and guardians. The salient points are highlighted below).

EDUCATION: A PREPARATION FOR LIFE

Preamble

"Whatever a person decides to do in life demands preparation, the qualities of courage, zeal, dedication and devotion to duty. Each day is a new day that imposes on us new demands and new responsibilities; each dawn has to be faced with renewed vigour and determination. Our suitability for the challenges of each day rests on our sustained endeavours in the acquisition of knowledge and experience and on our preparedness to adopt and utilise them profitably to suit the varying circumstances of life ....”

Responsibilities of Parents etc.

The future and the destiny of the youth lie largely in the hands of parents and guardians. Parents and guardians derive their moral and spiritual strength from their store of knowledge with which they direct the future of their wards .... Whatever their standing in society may be, or the degree of their education, they will help their children gain useful ideas and experience in life if the moral and spiritual basis of their knowledge are emphasised in their day-to-day directions of their wards. Sir Winston Churchill used to say that he had no technical or university education to boast of, except that he was obliged to pick up `a few things' about life and things, to acquire wisdom and experience in life. So parents and guardians in similar circumstances, may be wise to pick up ideas and experiences in the course of their life and orientate them to meet the demands of the times and the needs of the technological age in which we live ....

Advice to Parents and Guardians

Touching on the responsibilities of parents and guardians, Willie Tandoh said: "The success of your wards will naturally be a source of pleasure to you, and a source of inspiration to them. Their failures, a source of disappointment to you and indeed of frustration to them. But whether they succeed or fail, you are enjoined by your filial relationship, to be a source of encouragement to them in their endeavours in every possible way. This is a responsibility which you cannot shirk or delegate ....

Advice To The Student

Education is not something that only continues until one achieves success, awarded certificates and capped at graduation ceremonies. It is a continuing process .... The school merely provides the tools for your thoughts and guidelines for your actions in the future. Education helps you to recognise certain basic truths and guiding principles that will enhance your worth and stand you in good stead in life as a social and rational being in a world of realities ....

The Student, The School and The World

The world is different from a place of study-the school or the university. There is no teacher in the world except your own knowledge and experience. In the school, you live and obey rules: out in the world you will have to live and obey laws the breach of which will impose on you greater or severer sanctions than you had even experienced at school. While at school, you complain about bad and insufficient food, in the world, you will complain about no food and may not even be fortunate to get the bad and the insufficient food which you rejected at School. These are some of the unvarnished facts of life that will confront you once you step out into the world of reality....

Behaviour and Comportments of Students

Insubordination, rowdyism, rudeness and the like are no marks of good training nor of the well-bred. Such anti-social behaviour makes you a liability not an asset to yourself and to society. Sobriety, self-restraint, respect and industry count a lot in life for they are the touch-stones of civility and good breeding. The country needs gentlemen, of good character not bullies ... You should be satisfied with your lot and learn to deny yourself some of the fanciful things of life that fascinate you, refrain from over-indulgence, and avoid such words and actions that stunt not only your moral and spiritual development; but are clearly inimical to your-own interest and that of the country. You may score all "A's" in your examinations but if you fail to score similar grades in the world, life is likely to be less meaningful and satisfying to you and those who look up to you for leadership in society ....

Respect For Teachers and Superiors

The school offers you, the opportunity to prepare yourself for the future. It behoves you to hold in high esteem all those who devote their time, energies and talents; indeed, their very lives, to impart knowledge to you, that is, your teachers, who spend sleepless nights doing research for your benefit; and particularly, the headmaster, whose administrative skills, ensure the smooth running of your school. . . .

You should learn to cherish the country's civic institutions, honour and respect the leaders who symbolise authority in the society. You should serve to the best of your ability, remembering always that it is only when you serve whole-heartedly and honestly that you can lay claim to service in the future. As a student, society demands from your humility, respect and obedience to authority, as the only meaningful way of discharging your civic responsibility ....

Self-Improvement

Most of you, students, as soon as you had obtained your certificates and/or degrees, say to yourselves: "That is it, I am educated!" You start to drift along and make no effort to improve yourselves until the knowledge which you had acquired at school or the university loses its value to you, rendering you mentally sterile and intellectually bankrupt ....

Degrees and certificates are not intellectual pillows to sleep on . . . To those of you who are about to leave school, my advice is this: if you want to reap the full benefits of your education; if you want to be competent and efficient in your work; if you want to grow to be successful, living a useful and satisfying life, as a respected member of society, then your education should not end with the acquistion of certificates and university degrees. You need to continue to study and broaden your minds, extending the frontiers of your knowledge and experience by profitable use of your leisure, knowing yourself, your parents and friends, in fact, taking keen interest about life and things around you, and above all, continuing in your search for opportunities to better the lot of others, and contributing to the common good ....

Job Opportunities

Ghana has, today, embarked on an industrialisation programme and the need has arisen for technologists and tradesmen, more than ever before. Those of you who will be prepared to make a clean break with the past and accept the challenges of the new order will find a richer field of labour. You may perhaps be the means of hastening the country's industrialisation programme. There are more job openings in industry than there are men and women in the country. Job satisfaction is more than what one can imagine. Presently, lack of proper educational programme and the absence of adequate information on job opportunities tend to drive many young men and women after non-existent white collar jobs. The time is overdue for the country's educational programme to be overhauled and geared towards industrial and vocational training of the youth for gainful employment. Reappraisal of the education system of the country must ensure the right place for the technician and the tradesman-the man of the moment-and dignity accorded to his positions in our national endeavours ....

Challenges of The Future

Employers are constantly looking for young people with the right type of education and aptitude, who are intelligent and self-respecting, having the drive and the determination to take up responsibilities in executive or managerial positions. This is a challenge you must prepare yourselves fully to take up.

Your future is not like a novel or a book that you can leave on a shelf to be read later on. You require to be resolute and astute to be able to face the world squarely. In your endeavours you will, of course, come across problems which may be a test of your ingenuity and for your skill. Do not give up or feel frustrated. Be determined and persist in your search until you arrive at sound solutions that give you satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

Responsibilities of Old Boys

As Old Santaclausian, you must be proud of your Alma Mater and feel obliged to take your place along with your fellows as active and useful members of the Adisadel Old Boys' Association (AOBA).

The achievements of the Old Boys of Adisadel College in the various spheres of human endeavour, particularly in the economic field, should inspire and spur you onto emulate their examples and follow their footsteps; you must always feel guided and animated in all your endeavours by the motto of our great School: Vel Primus Vel Cum Primis.

All of us, Old Santaclausians, are trustees of the great School to which we are all proud to belong. The least that we can do for posterity, and for our children is to ensure that Adisadel continues to strive and hold on to her proper place in the vanguard, by always being "the first or with the first" in every thing, and ensuring that those who come after us may enjoy the fruits of our labours, and become better citizens than we have been ourselves....

Beau Geste

As a gesture of encouragement and support to the School, W.C. Tandoh handed out a manificent `67th Birthday Present' to Adisadel, when he announced after his didactic and inspiring speech, that his Company had offered to equip the School's Science Laboratory to the tune of C5,000.00 in addition to undertaking to sponsor the establishment of a Trade School at Adisadel College to provide vocational training for the youth of the country.

This gesture is indeed an eloquent expression of filial love for one's Alma Mater, shown by an Old Boy of the School. Willie Tandoh has thrown down a great gauntlet. It behoves every well-meaning Old Santaclausian to endeavour to take it up, gallantly.
 

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