IN 1946, the Assemblies of God Church, one of the oldest Pentecostal churches in the country set foot in the Eastern Region and established its first church at Mpraeso on the Kwahu Scarps.
About 33 years later in 1979, the church’s activities were extended to the New Juaben Municipality, where a church was built in Koforidua, its capital, which also doubles as the regional capital.
In line with its tenets, the early reverend ministers initially shepherded the new converts through the teachings of the gospel with the ultimate goal of achieving happiness and salvation.
However, with time, when education became the bedrock of scientific and technological advancement, the Assemblies of God Church, like many of the Christian religious organisations, decided to invest in education by establishing schools for not only its members, but also the communities in which it operated.
Such initiative, which was to broaden the horizon of the people to better serve God and humanity, took off in the region late in September 1989 with the establishment of a kindergarten with 25 kids placed in the care of four teachers.
The school, which is located within the premises of the regional church building in the centre of the Koforidua and started with a very few children, was turned into a modern school complex made up of a crèche, kindergarten, primary and junior high school (JHS), all with a total pupil population of 400.
The school, Assemblies of God School Complex, due to its adherence to Christian principles and discipline, has become one of the best in the New Juaben Municipality by both academic and moral standards.
For instance, the JHS section currently ranks among the best 10 in the municipality.
In view of that, most of the products of the JHS normally enter the best senior high schools (SHS) in the municipality, notably Pope John Senior High School and the Ghana Secondary Senior High School.
Such products finally enter tertiary institutions, as a result of which many have now become professionals such as medical doctors, teachers, engineers and lawyers.
The school complex, which is closely associated with the church and managed in line with Christian principles, is under the proprietorship of Mrs Joyce Donkor, a renowned educationist, with the assistance of Mrs Christiana Agbetie, also an educationist, well versed in basic education as the headmistress.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the school should achieve such a remarkable feat in terms of academic performance within the New Juaben Municipality.
According to Mrs Agbetie, the strict disciplinary measures instituted in the school, coupled with dedication on the part of the teachers, propelled the school to such an enviable status.
“Although we are not among the old JHSs in the municipality, we have made a mark, because many of our products who enter the best SHSs in the area or other parts of the country come out successfully as professionals in the various disciplines such as medicine, law, engineering and education,” Mrs Agbetie said.
Other significant aspects of the school are its computer laboratory, provision of a balanced diet for the pupils at a reasonable cost and fees that are affordable by all parents.
In the words of the Regional Superintendent of the church, Rev. Alex Ofori Amankwa, “the church and the school’s Board of Governors have taken these initiatives to ensure that no child, irrespective of the financial status of parents, would be deprived of quality education”.
“It is the responsibility of the church and the Board of Governors to make education accessible to all children who are the gifts of God to be nurtured and properly schooled to become useful citizens to take over from us in the near future,” Rev. Ofori Amankwa stated.
It has also been programmed to hook the school on to the Internet in August, this year, thus breaking new grounds as the first basic educational institution in the New Juaben Municipality to be on the Internet.
To enable the junior high section of the school to admit more pupils, a four-acre land had been acquired on the outskirts of the town to construct more classrooms and offices to house it next year, the full cost of which would be taken care of by the church and the school.
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