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Father Simon Bio

This is my dream to get a Catholic High School for my diocese

Father Simon Assamoah was born at Enchi in the Western region of Ghana on the 18th of May 1954. Ordained a Priest on the 24th of July 1983, he worked for 10 years in Ghana in the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese. In February 1994 Father Simon went to Aberdeen, Scotland for a post graduate studies in Business Administration. At Aberdeen he was installed as the first Black African Pastor in Scotland. In July 1998, Fr. Simon completed his studies at the Aberdeen University with a Master in Business Administration (MBA). In January 1998 he was assigned to the Archdiocese of Atlanta and worked at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Duluth. Ga. He was recalled to Ghana in October 2000 to work at the newly created diocese of Wiawso as the Vicar General. Fr. Simon is also the pastor of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus at Bibiani.
 

His parents are all living at Enchi about 80km from Bibiani. He has two brothers and three sisters. For the past four years Fr. Simon has helped about 15 villages to get water wells and assisted farmers in the region to improved their cocoa farms with fertilizers. He also had a rectory built at the parish.

Now Father Simon is concentrating his efforts towards the children of his diocese and their education. Education is a problem in Ghana and for the area to develop, education is the key. For the next three years his ambition is to try and help the diocese get a good Catholic High School.

My Rational for a Catholic High School

Ghana, in Western Africa, is the size of the state of Oregon. The population is around 22,409,572. Ghana was the first nation in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain it’s independence from Britain in 1957.  The Western Region of Ghana, although not the poorest, is among the poorest in terms of infrastructure.

The Diocese of Wiawso is located in the North-Western part of the Western Region and was created six years ago with Most Reverend Joseph Francis Essien as the Bishop.  The Diocese covers six administrative districts – Wiawso, Bibiani-Anhwiaso, Bekwai, Bia, Juaboso, and Aowin-Suaman with a total land area of 9,644 square km.  There is a total population of about 620,000.  About 85% of the population is Christian with some Muslims and a considerable number of people practicing traditional religions.

The Diocese lies within the Semi-Deciduous belt of Ghana with an abundance of forest and mineral resources.  The average rainfall per annum is around 125 cm.  The high rate of timber logging, gold and bauxite mining and occasional bush fire pose major environmental threats.

The major economic activity in the Diocese is subsistence agriculture, the main cash crop being cocoa. Trading and transport businesses are relatively small.  Craftsmanship and trades have not developed to any marked degree.

Formal education is very well registered in the Diocese.  Enrollment figures from pre-school to second cycle are reasonably appreciable, none the less; the statistics do not correspond to the teacher-pupil ratios of 1:32.  The drop-out and delinquency rates are high.  Social Services in the area are under developed.  The road network is of a very low quality.  Only about 3% is tarred and facilities are inadequate and sub-standard.  The electricity supply has been significantly improved and the project is on-going. 

Why St. Joseph’s High School? 

There are quite a good number of Primary and Middle Schools in the Diocese.  There are only nine High Schools in an area of almost 10,000 sq km.  Thus these schools are over crowded with about 80 students in each class in some of these schools.  Only one of these has boarding facilities and the rest are Community Day Schools.

The quality of basic education is very poor due to inadequate teaching and learning materials, poor teacher accommodations, poor supervision by management and poor general education infrastructure.

Due to the poor quality of basic education in the Diocese, most of the young people cannot gain access to higher education, thus there is a large number of illiterate young people.  The resulting effect is a high number of teenage pregnancies among the young girls and sexual laxity, resulting in HIV / Aids, and the young boys joining to gangs and becoming street children in the cities.

A latest World Bank report has stated that “nearly half of all young women in Zambia and Ghana cannot read a simple sentence even after six years of schooling” (General News of Wednesday, 20 September, 2006; Ghana Web).  As a result, the World Bank has urged developing countries to invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for their young people aged between 12 and 24.

Education is the key to human progress and economic growth.  Education is the key to job provisions and poverty reduction.  For one to compete in the global village, one must have good education. Thus, the idea of St. Joseph’s High School is to provide quality education for the young people of Wiawso Diocese so that some students could qualify to attend colleges so that they can come back to help in developing the area.  Young people would like to be seen as agents of change – agents who can bring enormous energy and enthusiasm to the business of nation building.  With lack of quality education, young people feel they have no part to play in nation building, thus most join rebel groups in war-torn areas.

St. Joseph’s High School is needed in Wiawso Diocese so that through the school, future doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, architects, entrepreneurs, priests, and religious leaders could come from the area and these would transform the whole region and the country at large.

I agree with what Emmanuel Jimenez wrote in the 2007 World Bank report, “One is to provide more school places at Secondary (High School) and even Tertiary level.  But it is also important to make sure that the quality that is provided is high enough to enable the graduates to be able to compete in the global labor market.”

This is my vision for the establishment of St. Joseph’s High School.

I am appealing to foundations, friends, and all people of good-will to help to raise enough funds for the establishment of this great school which will one day become the beacon of intellectual light for Wiawso Diocese.

Presented by Rev. Fr. Simon Assamoah
(Vicar-General)