News
Anna Gertrude Yankah clocks 105…still counting
With life expectancy at 65 years for female in Ghana, it is just divine providence that Madam Anna Gertrude Yankah, the former Headteacher of Korle Gonno Catholic Boys School, clocked 105 years on Tuesday, November 2.
Born November 2, 1916, at Atuabo in the Western Region, as twince, Anna Yankah outlived her sibling who passed in to eternity at the age of 90years.
Although the COVID-19 restriction on social gathering has limited the pomp and pageantry that would have gone with her birthday celebration, close family relations rallied around to celebrate her and to give glory to God for her longevity.
When The Spectator touched her home at Nungua on her birthday on Tuesday, Anna Yankah looked hale and hearty and was able to tell her birthday and names of her children.
Her last daughter Ms Baaba Yankah-Oduah, who is 68 years old praised God for the life of her mother.She made a passionate appeal to the government to honour people like her mother for their service to the country, since they could easily be identified on the pension payroll.
“The government can say thank you,” Mrs Yankah-Oduah said.
A Ghanaian world renowned Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon, whose uncle was Anna Yankah’s husband sent a congratulatory message to her from his base in German by phone told The Spectator that “it is a great day and great achievement in Ghana and in Africa for one to live up to105 years” and commended her for keeping her life fit.
Gertrude was born a twin at Atuabo in the Western Region to Mr Alfred Bimpeh-Sequ, a Customs Officer in the Gold Coast and Madam Elizabeth Bimpeh-Sequ (Nee Otu). In 1922, the family moved to Accra where she and her twin sister, Mary attended the Government Girls’ School.
After attaining her Standard Seven (7) certificate, her father vetoed that she train at the Midwifery School at the Korle Bu Hospital which she did but for only a semester.
She sat for the end of semester exams and excelled and when a friend of her father read the results on the hospital board, he quickly communicated the results to her father and it was at the time of her father congratulating her that she expressed the desire to quit the midwifery course and take up sewing as a profession.
She learnt to sew and was particularly busy during the Empire Day activities, sewing dresses for a great number of teachers for the march-pasts. In 1936, she incidentally sewed a shirt for Rev Fr Bronk at the Sacred Heart Parish at Derby Avenue.
Satisfied with her sewing prowess, he recommended her to teach Needle Work at the St. Joseph Catholic School at Adabraka.
In the course of her teaching, she sat for the Teachers Examination in 1938 and became a full-fledged teacher teaching other subjects besides needlework. In 1943 she was transferred back to the Sacred Heart School, Derby Avenue where she taught till 1948.
It was during that period that she married and became Mrs Anna Gertrude Yankah but popularly called Teacher Akweley. In 1948 she joined her husband also a Teacher (but in Anglican Schools) on transfer to Saltpond.
At Saltpond she taught with two lady teachers, Teacher Mary Mensah-Brown (later became Mrs. Hindson) and Teacher Emelia Attah-Fynn who had just started a newly founded Catholic Girls School. In 1950 her husband left the teaching field to join a newly formed Social Welfare and Mass Education Department recruiting trained teachers for Adult Education and Community Development at Winneba.
She, therefore, left Saltpond at the end of 1949 back for Accra to take up teaching again at the St. Joseph Catholic School Adabraka. In 1951 while her husband was engaged in Mass Education and Community Development programmes in the Central Region, she had to transfer to Cape Coast with the children and taught for six months at the Catholic Jubilee Boys School.
At Saltpond and Cape Coast she was affectionately known as Teacher Anna.
At the end of 1952 she decided to leave the teaching field and join her husband at Mass Education doing more of adult education at Winneba until 1955 and later at Akim Oda until 1957.
Between 1958 and 1960 she took a break from the Mass Education work and in 1961 went back to the teaching field this time as a Head Teacher in a government school (The Sarkodie Primary School) because there was no vacancy in the Catholic Schools at Koforidua for a head teacher.
So for the first time in her life she taught for seven years in a non-Catholic school.
Her husband left Social Welfare in 1967 to co-start the Commercial Department of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.
So in 1968, she was back in Accra and as a Head Teacher of the Korle Gonno Catholic Boys School.
A position she held until her retirement in 1974.
By Salifu Abdul-Rahaman
News
Sam George authorises dismissal of about 100 Ghana Post staff over irregular recruitment
Communications Minister, Sam George, has authorised the dismissal of nearly 100 staff of the Ghana Post Limited, citing an irregular recruitment process.
The affected staff members were employed after the December 7, 2024, election, a period during which the minister says proper procedures were not followed.
Speaking about the decision, Sam George expressed his commitment to clearing the ministry of individuals whose recruitment was not in line with the established protocols.
He stated that as the head of the ministry, he could not work with staff members whose employment was marred by irregularities.
“If you are a minister and you take over a ministry that has 3,117 staff in the ministry and its agencies and 600 were recruited after December 7, you cannot expect me to come and inherit such a mess, and so the rationalisation is ongoing,” he told the press on Tuesday.
He added, “Today, I have authorised a termination of a few more at Ghana Post, almost 100 that were done post-election.”
The Communications Minister explained that the irregular recruitment had created a situation where positions were filled without following due process, leading to inefficiencies within the department.
The Ningo-Prampram legislator emphasised that he is on a mission to “Clean up the ministry to make sure that it is lean and efficient and carries out its works.”
The government has been reverting many post-election employment in the public sector, which it says was done without following the laid down procedures in various sectors of the economy.
Source: myjoyonline.com
News
High Commissioner of Barbados to Ghana pays courtesy call on Minister of Health
The High Commissioner of Barbados to Ghana, Juliette Byone-Sutherland, paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to discuss key issues in the health sector.
During the meeting, Mr.Akandoh highlighted the need for increased funding to ensure the effective implementation of healthcare processes.
To address the challenges faced by health workers in rural areas, the Minister mentioned a proposed package of incentives, including an additional 20% of their basic salaries, quicker promotions, and scholarships for further training.
He also emphasised the importance of providing steady leave with pay to encourage health workers to remain in these areas.
Mr.Akandoh stressed the need for six additional hospitals to cater to the new regions created in Ghana. He also discussed plans to upgrade regional and teaching hospitals to attract more skilled health workers.
In response, High Commissioner Byone-Sutherland expressed her appreciation for the Minister and the government’s efforts to improve the health sector.
She also suggested that nurses from Barbados could benefit from health training programmes in Ghana, gaining practical experience in the field.
This courtesy call highlights the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing between countries to improve healthcare outcomes.
The Ministry of Health remains committed to addressing the challenges faced by health workers and ensuring that Ghanaians receive quality healthcare services.
