"Buck's Report on the Akim Schools in 1878"

The boarding school in Kibi in a good condition, little missing of lessons, e.g. progress satisfactory in all but arithmetic, the teachers working conscientiously, with one or two reservations stated about the two Akim teachers. Date is praised very highly for his efforts in leading the school. Anoba has succeeded very well in the training of singing, but singing is much loved by the boys. Average number of pupils in the year - 49. The elementary schools on the other stations have not gone so well - the major problem being parents' desire to see their children in a school for which there is some payment. (The remark about heathen boys supported in the Kukurantumi school by members of the community is repeated tout court). Over Kibi free-pupils (day-pupils) Buck remarks that the children of the community are mostly too young for school, and the children of the town are mostly the property of the Okyenhene, and therefore school attendance is impossible for them. In Asiakwa the chief will not allow boys to go to school - a slave of the chief's brought a boy for school, but was forbidden to send him by the chief, and when the boy went anyway he (the boy) was put in the block. Buck writes if only the English Government would show some evidence of its power, but as it is to cite English law in Akim is to invite derision. In Kwabeng only 2 pupils go to the school - Buck made the mistake there of dealing only with the chief in negotiations about the opening of the school, and when the school was ready to start and the chief invited the promised boys from his elders they replied that since he had not consulted them about the school they would send no boys. Buck remarks - 'Real Social Democratic talk’. There are boys in Akurofufu ond Awenare who would attend the Kwabeng school if they were given their food. The people in Abomosu are very anxious for education.

02.01.1879

02.01.1879

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