The Scholarships Secretariat has offered Thomas Amoani, the student from Adeiso Senior High School who obtained grade A1 in all eight of his subjects in the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) a full scholarship to study at a university in the United Kingdom.
The move by the Scholarships Secretariat was in response to a directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after Amoani’s exam results went viral on social media.
Currently, the senior high graduate is doing menial work such as weeding and harvesting oranges to earn a little income to support himself and his family. He had aggregate 26 in his final junior high school exams and then his family could not afford to pay the cost of furthering his education.
He considered staying back a year or two and trying to find the money to continue his studies. But then he had the good luck of benefiting from the government’s announcement in 2017 of the start of its flagship Free Senior High School programme.
Amoani says encouragement and motivation by a former teacher, Mr Ampabeng, contributed immensely to his success. He also attributed his accomplishment to maintaining a balance between hard work and faith that God would make his dream come true.
A statement released by the Scholarships Secretariat said the head of education at the Ghana High Commission in the UK has been directed to initiate processes immediately with the aim of securing admission to an institution in the UK for Amoani.
The WASSCE prodigy on Monday told the host of The Asaase Breakfast Show Kojo Mensah that he wants to become an economist like Ghana’s vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
“I want to study economics in the university to become an economist like the vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumi,” Amoaning said. “Even I wish to aspire to become more than that.”
He described how his mother at one point asked him to stop schooling because of financial constraints at home but he persevered. The 18-year-old has also had an offer from the vice-chancellor of Ashesi University to fund his further studies.
Read the Scholarships Secretariat’s full statement below:
Fred Dzakpata
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#asaaseradio #TVOL
UPDATE: This story was updated on 28 November to correct the name of the high-achieving student in question: Thomas Amoani, and not Amoaning.
