A young female Ghanaian student in far-away Morocco has once again made the black star of Africa proud in her academic field.

Ms Esther Sena has been awarded the Best Student in French for the preparatory course for all foreign students studying in Morocco.

This was possible because of Akufo-Addo’s initiative in investing in French education. What is even more intriguing is that most of her competitors came from countries which speak French as their first language, unlike our lingua franca. 

This goes to show that when our students are given the level playing field deserved them, they can compete with the brightest academic minds globally in all fields. Another side to her success story is the fact that Ms Sena was awarded a scholarship from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, under the visionary decentralisation selection scheme introduced by the current Registrar, Mr Kingsley Agyemang.

The deluge of articles and media content over this particular Registrar’s efforts while serving mother Ghana means that even those who have only a passing interest in education and especially foreign scholarships can rattle off words to describe just how he is helping students all over the country.

Mr Agyemang has repeatedly been described as a cool, attached personality that appears to favour people over power. One student in the media recently described his shock at the crowd of students he met at the Secretariat premises prior to his interview to attend a language programme in Algeria. The man has transformed the place to make it an agency for Ghana, not some in Ghana.

What is more, gone are the days, Ghanaian students were left stranded all over the world with tuition and welfare allowances piled to a heap and these young students engaged in all manner of activities to survive in foreign lands, with most of them unable to complete their courses. These days the situation is very different, the United Kingdom, Ghana’s number one educational partner has revived once again its bilateral engagements with the Scholarship Secretariat through many arrangements to absorb undergraduate and postgraduate students into some of its top universities. 

The Secretariat has arranged and resurrected some of its long and previously mismanaged educational commitments with various countries; notable to mention are China, Morocco, Russia, Algeria, Spain, India, Hungary, and Germany. The era where various embassies in Ghana were issuing newsletters to warn off students from making applications with the Secretariat seems to have lost on us due to the able and efficient managerial skills applied by this current government.

The zeal with which President Nana Akufo-Addo also kick-started the share of our national cake to all families through his numerous educational interventions within his short time in government deserves a huge commendation from all well-meaning citizens. It must be highlighted that, if the government does not support the vision of provision on all matters related to education, then these successes could not have been achieved. To quote Kofi Annan:  “Knowledge is power, information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” This belief, our President likewise his Registrar shares.

It is said that: “A leader is a person who is never satisfied with even his own work and always looks to achieve more.” Take for example efforts by the Secretariat to digitise all its records and generate a labour bank with data of its completed awardees fully recognisable and accessible to potential employers from all across the globe. This comprehensive foresight makes this young Registrar a director of change, a man with a plan that, indeed has transformed an agency that was lost and written off.
With the current leadership firmly steering the academic future of our bright and most excellent students here and abroad, we believe many more Ms Esther Sena’s will be discovered and Ghana will soon reap all its rewards from the current investments being made into the educational future of our young men and women.