PRESEC – Legon is currently 81 years and from Odumase to Legon, still Ghana’s finest secondary school for boys.
From a humble enrolment of 16 pioneer-students and 4 tutors in 1938, the current population is 3,870 boys, with 70 classrooms, 178 teachers, 75 non-teaching staff and 20 national service personnel.
The cry of the Presbyterian church of Ghana to establish a secondary school, a cry started by the church’s first Synod Clerk Rev. N. T. Clerk, and joined by others over the years reached a crescendo in 1937.
The frantic appeal for help made by the church to the Scottish Mission yielded a dry and disappointed result; “we came to evangelize, not to educate… Education is task of the government”.
This negative response stemmed from fear of providing funds for salaries, buildings and equipment, etc. It was during this trying period that Engmann Augustus Wilkens Engmann, 35 years of age offered to do the impossible himself.
He offered to work without pay to help realize the dream of a Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School.
He was given an appointment letter signed by the then Synod Clerk, Rev. D. E. Akwa, which stated in part “I am directed by the Synod Committee to inform you that you are appointed the first Principal of the Presbyterian Secondary School which is going to be established at Odumase in February 1938” this was in October 1937.
Engmann was then ill-equipped like the lad David in the Bible. His qualification then was a Teacher’s certificate externally obtained.
But he willingly took up the great challenge and with characteristic energy immediately moved from Akropong to Odumase and immersed himself completely in the initial work.
A. W. Engmann obtained the premises of the Old Basel Mission residence at Odumase which became the birthplace of PRESEC.
There were no facilities for teaching, no typewriter for the office work, no conveniences for the students, only the rooms of the German missionaries which was the source of water supply.
Engmann had to build everything from scratch, turning bedrooms into classrooms etc. But for E. A. W. Engmann PRESEC would not have been in existence today.
….. To be Continued….
Source: https://preseclegon.edu.gh/our-history-modern/
