"Year's Report for the Abetifi Boarding School (Written by Missionary Tschopp)"

The Kwahu boys who had gone to a middle school were apparently John Kwasi Wiredu, Daniel Kwadwo Bre, David Kweku Fori, Immanuel Kofi Adakwa. The first was expelled, the other three had run away. Tschopp reports much opposition to schooling in Abetifi on the grounds that in the Middle Schools they did not want Kwahu boys to be taught to be teachers and catechists, because of the fact that these boys had not finished the course. Both in January and August it was a major operation getting the Abetifi school reopened because the scholars simply stayed away on the appointed day. In January only 11 out of the 17 who had been earlier attending could be persuaded to return (there was one case of a parent keeping a boy away unless the missionaries made him a loan). In August out of the 9 who should have returned only 5 did, he took 4 out of the ‘town school’ in Abetifi, one boy came from Nkwatia, and one from Bepong. In addition there were 7 who were servants of the missionaries or children of catechists. He appears to lay great stress on order and tidiness in his running of the school. The 'town school' almost collapsed in the course of the year. Tschopp describes the process of trying to collect pupils for it - the boys express a willingness, and then the teacher or a missionary approaches his family. He offers four cases of refusal – One would only cooperate if he was given a loan of £2, another needed his boy to help him travelling and when hunting, another boy belonged to the fetish because the fetish had given him to his mother, in another case it was believed that the boy would die if he went to school. Although in the end they assembled 5 pupils the school had to be closed and Otieko sent out more on preaching journeys because the house where the school had been held was falling in and they could find no substitute. In Bepong a school which stood at 6 pupils at the beginning of the year now stands at 4, one having come to the Boarding School in Abetifi. The teacher there is wanting in zeal. In Nkwatia there had been a school while Beko was working there - 3 pupils, one of whom has come to the boarding school. (There is a table of the names of the Boarding School scholars, with age and some hints about origins).

27.01.1887

27.01.1887

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