St. James Seminary and Senior High School
St. James Seminary is a senior high school in Sunyani, the capital of the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, founded in 1978 by Most Rev. James Kwadwo Owusu, the late bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sunyani. It is not just a Senior High School, but also a Catholic Minor Seminary which offers a wide range of opportunities for both seminarians and non-Seminarians to make them not only aware of their potentials, but to fulfill them. The school emphasizes moral, spiritual and positive character formation in addition to striving to achieve academic excellence. St. James has been adjudged the best senior high school in Ghana over the past decade having featured consecutively in the list of top ten performing schools in the West African Examinations Council’s Senior School Certificate Exams (WASSCE) over the period. It topped the WASSCE in 2006, 2009 and 2011 and produced the overall best and third best candidates in West Africa in the 2016 exam.
In 2016, representatives of Open Mind Africa were given the opportunity to meet with the entire student body and to introduce our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program to them. We received an overwhelming response from the students, and many of them signed up to participate our extra curricular activities. Open Mind Africa enjoys enormous support from the school administration and teachers. Over the past two years, OMA have held our summer camp at St. James campus. Numbers of students who have expressed interest in our programs far exceed our current capacity. Open Mind Africa is working to lay the right foundation and increase our capacity to reach more students. The OMA campus manager for St. James Seminary and Senior High School is Mr. Barry Olichey.
Notre Dame Girls Senior High School (NDSS)
Notre Dame Girls Senior High School was established on 28 September 1987 by the cooperative efforts of the then Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, Reverend James Kwadwo Owusu and the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Reverend Sister Dorez Mehrtens and Chiefs and people of Fiapre with an initial number of 37 females.
The first students enrolled generally were those who would have been rejected by the well-endowed schools in Ghana. The first cramped temporary premises of the school were in a renovated technical school near St. Patrick’s Primary and Junior Secondary School behind the Christ the King Cathedral in Sunyani.
The plan was to locate the school in Fiapre where the Chief and the Fiapre Community had donated the land. Progress on the Fiapre site developed very slowly due to limited funds. Construction commenced in 1992 and only in 1996 did the new Notre Dame Girls Senior High School open for classes at the present site.
Open Mind Africa started cooperating with Notre Dame Girls Senior High School in 2016, to teach Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to students as an extra-curricular. The number of students enrolled in the SEL program has grown exponentially. Open Mind Africa attach great importance to girl education, therefore NDSS remain a priority for the organization. OMA campus manager for Notre Dame Girls Senior High School is Mr. Charles Lwanga.
Sunyani Senior High School (SUSEC)
Sunyani Senior High School is a coeducational second cycle in the Bono Region of Ghana. Sunyani Senior High School was established in 1960 by the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The school currently has population of over 2700 students, and a teaching staff of over 108. The mission of the school is to provide all round secondary education encompassing skills acquisition, enhanced literacy, and sound training for boys and girls.
In the 2016 Open Mind Africa visited ten senior high schools in the then Brong- Ahafo Region. Sunyani Senior High School was one of the schools visited. SUSEC was eventually selected by OMA to initiate our social emotional learning program with their students. Students from Sunyani Senior High School have attended both of our previous summer camps. OMA has a very good relationship with the administration and leadership of the school. The OMA campus manager for SUSEC is Mr. Nathaniel Ahaja.