The official opening of Sabre’s 5th Sustainable Kindergarten Complex and Ghana’s 1st Kindergarten Centre of Excellence – OLA Kindergarten Centre of Excellence, took place on Friday. The ceremony brought together parents, children, OLA College of Education lecturers and Sabre Trust staff to celebrate this exciting new school. Amongst the invited guests were Professor Anamoah-Mensah, Assistant Director of Education for Cape Coast Metropolis, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast and the Principal of Holy Child College of Education. Special Guest of Honour was Sonia Hinton, Sabre’s Education Advisor.

The Principal of OLA College of Education, Sister Elizabeth Amoako-Arhen, began the celebration with an opening address in which she expressed her deepest gratitude to Sabre, all sponsors and volunteers for their support in the construction of their new kindergarten.

‘”This Centre will be used to provide hands-on training to our students and ensure that pupils who come here receive quality education.

In the 2013/14 academic year, when the early childhood programme was introduced into the regular training, as part of the new education reform, a centre of excellence in early childhood education was just a concept, a dream. Sabre Charitable Trust in collaboration with OLA College of Education saw the power of actualising such a vision- a vision to promote high quality kindergarten education for the ordinary Ghanaian child.”

The Managing Director of Sabre Trust, Dominic Bond, said “the greatest people to say thank you to are the sponsors who made this possible.”

The unveiling of the donor wall is an excellent reminder of all of the people whose donations have made this Centre of Excellence a reality.

Prof. Anamoah-Mensah congratulated Sabre for taking on both the construction of schools and teacher training so that the schools built are used to their fullest potential.

“We thank Sabre Trust and all of the sponsors for this venture, the structure without the content is useless, but Sabre Trust is involved in the content delivery as well. I hope this will not be the only Centre of Excellence in the country.”

This opening ceremony marked the official handing over of the school from Sabre to the Ghana Education Service. It was also an opportunity to celebrate the work of the Building Better Schools (BBS) team who worked so hard on the construction of this exciting new kindergarten. The BBS Project Manager, Lawrence Mensah, expressed his gratitude to all of the sponsors for making this dream a reality.

As special guest of honour, our Education Advisor, Sonya, cut the ribbon, officially opening the school and allowing all the guests and community to have a look around.

Kindergarten pupils performed some traditional dancing, including Azonto!

The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all of those that attended and was the perfect way to officially open Ghana’s first Kindergarten Centre of Excellence. Medaase pa pa pa (thank you very much) to everyone who has made this possible and we look forward to opening many more Centre’s of Excellence in the coming years!