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PROFILE OF THE HEADMISTRESS: MRS. GIFTY ANDOH 

 

 

Mrs. Gifty Andoh nee Gifty Okae hails from Boso, in the Eastern Region. She started school in 1972 at Wesley College Practice School, Kumasi, where she wrote her Common Entrance and successfully gained admission into St. Monica’s Secondary School at Ashanti Mampong and obtained a GCE Ordinary Level Certificate in 1984. Her interest in imparting knowledge led her to pursue a three-year Post-Secondary Education at the Mount Mary Teacher Training College, Somanya. She came out successfully with Cert “A” 3 Year Post Secondary Certificate in 1987. Mrs. Andoh sat for the GCE Advanced Level as a private candidate in the year 1989. She had also undergone a Six-week Proficiency Course in the French at the University of Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.  She also obtained a Diploma Certificate in French Language from the University of Ouagadougou, -Burkina Faso in 1993. Amazingly, she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French and Spanish with Linguistics from the University of Ghana, Legon. In addition, she holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Certificate from the University of Cape Coast which she obtained between the years 2003 and 2005. Having been with students and the school environment almost all her life, she saw the need to enhance her Psycho-social abilities and this led to her acquisition of a Diploma Certificate in Psycho-Social Counselling at the AKONA School of Counselling in Accra. Mrs. Gifty Andoh holds an M.Ed. (Educational Administration) degree from the Institute of Education, Planning and Administration, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Professionally, and by way of promotions, she rose through the ranks as Assistant Superintendent and she is now a Deputy Director.

Mrs. Gifty Andoh started her profession as that single match stick that has lighted many schools with a majority of them being highly deprived. She went as a torch bearer to illuminate the less privileged which she excellently executed through hard work and determination. As a young trained teacher, her teaching journey began at Nungua AMA I Basic School, 1987 – 1990 as a French teacher and went on study leave after which she was transferred to Teshie Lincoln JSS from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2001, she moved from the Greater Accra Region to Ajumako Catholic JSS in the Central Region, where she spent the greater years of her practice.

As a unique personality with exceptional qualities and experience in teaching the French Language, Mrs. Gifty Andoh spent thirteen good years at Mfantsiman Girls Senior High School, Saltpond (2001 to 2014). At Mfantsiman, her hard work pushed her up the ladder to become the Head of the French Department. During her tenure in office, the school chalked several successes with the students emerging as Best French students in the Central Region (2012) and as part of the award package, the student awardees and the teachers were sent to Togo for a nine-day Proficiency Course in the University of Togo (village du Benin). Her French students during the WASSCE always ended at aggregate C as the lowest grade with about 80% of the students getting aggregates A and B. It therefore came as no surprise when in 2004, she won the Best National French Teacher award and was taken to Togo (village du Benin) for two weeks. She again participated in an International Competition for French teachers which had participants from 48 different countries. Mrs. Gifty Andoh placed 3rd in the competition and she was given a two-weeks pedagogical Scholarship to France from 1st to 13th July, 2013. While at Mfantsiman, she played so many other roles aside from her core mandate of teaching, which included serving as secretary to the Parents-Teachers Association at Mfantsiman for two consecutive terms (2005-2009). She was also a member of the Chaplaincy Committee and it was through her ingenuity that Chaplain’s Manse was built. She was a housemistress and for three successive times, her House received an award for the Best Kept House as well as the Best-Behaved House during the School’s Speech and Prize-Giving Day Celebration (2009-2011). Per her job schedules, Mrs. Andoh rose through the ranks to become an Assistant Headmistress (Administration) at Twifo Praso Senior High School from 2014 to 2018.

 

In her position as Headmistress, Mrs. Gifty Andoh commenced her career from a very humble beginning, like a little bud in the then newly absorbed community school, Abeadze State College (October 2018) which lacked quite several facilities to enhance teaching and learning. There was no office for the Head, nor residence facility not even an account for the school. Typical of a visionary leader, she wrote many letters to attract the attention of stakeholders on the need to reach out to the school. Just when help started tripping into the school, she was reposted to Obrachire Senior High Technical School (in February 2019) as the Headmistress where she served excellently for one year and five months. The remarkable interventions she brought to the school, to the admiration of all staff and other stakeholders within that short period is awe-inspiring. For the record, the school recorded its 1st ever-successful examination results in the 2019/2020 WASSCE.

 

Today, by dint of hard work and by the grace of God, Mrs. Andoh finds herself in a Grade A school in the nation’s capital, that is, Accra Girls Senior High School. Her ingenuity and tenacity have been brought to bear, within this short period, at Accra Girls Senior High School as the Headmistress. Thus her appointment back to the Region and to this noble school can never be a case of an accident but divine! Since she assumed office, she has made some giant footprints in the paths of the school. 

 

 She has a singular aim of bringing the school to the limelight as one of the top ten schools in Ghana and also grooming the girls to become ladies with vision and virtue. One of her aspirations is to become the Best Headmistress Ghana has ever produced.

No wonder she won the National Teacher Prize- Second (2) Runner-up Teacher in Leadership and Administration in the 2022 academic year. A great feat. 

Mrs. Gifty Andoh believes discipline cannot be separated from academic excellence hence prioritizing discipline and academic success is the core business among students. She initiated many interventions which included an Open forum, once a month for students and personally provided a Suggestion Box on campus for students to feel part of the decision-making process. Apart from that she  donated library books to the school and also initiated a self-help housing project for teachers to augment the number of staff staying on campus other things she facilitated include regimental and dance band and many more. 

Pertinent to Mrs. Andoh’s job objective, her strength lies in good interpersonal skills with the ability to work with people of diverse backgrounds, all aimed at improving performance in a congenial atmosphere, which will promote academic excellence to meet the set targets and objectives of an institution. Mrs. Andoh eschews complacency and mediocrity. In this regard, she enjoys attending workshops so she can always build her capacity and encourage her team players to do the same. Hence, she organized several Capacity Building workshops for the staff.

She is married to Mr. Andoh an Engineer with four (4) lovely children.