Canadian Independent College, Ghana held its 17th graduation ceremony in Accra last Saturday.
Twenty-seven students who had completed the pre-tertiary program at the school graduated at the short but impressive ceremony.
The school, which has both primary and secondary sections, was established in 2008 and uses the Canadian Province of Ontario curriculum.
Speaking at the event the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, has advised the 2023 graduating class to imbibe values and principles that last and can stand the test of time.
According to him, mistakes would be made along the way but stressed that is normal hence one must pick himself/herself up and try again to do the right thing.
“You will have a lot of bad influences but listen to the truth within yourself and rest assured that people will notice. They will admire you and emulate what you do and in time, more and more people will do the right thing,” he said.
Dr Bempah Tandoh told the students they are graduating not just to attend university but also into adulthood with so much entrusted to their care.
This, he said, is a period in their lives when they can choose who become leaders in the country’s democracy or decide to die defending their homelands by joining the military and stressed this is a lot of power in their hands.
He stated that while he will not attempt to tell them what they must do with that power he will leave them with three pieces of advice to consider.
The second, he said, is to respect and listen to people because it is easy to think one knows it all, has it all, and can do it all.
According to him, no one has been able to do big things by themselves, however.
“We are stronger when we listen to each other, we respect each other and we build a community together. When you respect and listen to people, you will soon realize that the cynical thinking of self, family and my kind keeps you bottled up and adds no value to you.”
“In these difficult times that we find ourselves in, we must be open to people, take time to understand them and their views and respect who they are and who they wish to become.”
“In the end, it is only when the world comes together that we overcome. If for nothing at all, think about World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic – when the world decided to come together, listen to each other and respect each other then we overcame. Listen to each other, respect each other and set our world on a different path that reflects the future we hope for.”
He stated the last piece of advice is hope and dream. According to him, realization and the manifestation of great things have always been the result of hopes kept alive and dreams coming into reality and cited his personal experience of being born and growing through the turmoil of military coups.
He urged the students to believe in the hope of a better tomorrow and dream of a brighter future and assured them he is betting on them to keep hope alive and never to lose it.
Dr. Bempah Tandoh expressed pride in the graduating class and indicated it is a huge deal to be graduating in the 2023 class because they battled so many things including a global pandemic of COVID-19 that ravaged the world.
What remains true, he said, is that their high school graduation marks a passage into adulthood when they begin to manage their own affairs, decide their priorities, and devote energies to the careers they wish to pursue.
All the twenty-Seven students who graduated have been offered admission by universities and colleges in the USA, Canada, UK as well as Ashesi University
