Women in Academia
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Mary Adu-Gyamfi

Mrs. Mary Adu-Gyamfi is a 52 year old married Akan woman with five daughters who fellowships at the Victory Baptist Church. She teaches Geography at Presbyterian Secondary School-Osu located at Kuuku Hill a suburb of Accra and has three dependents.

She shared a peculiar experience that her father died when she was ten days old and her mother who was a farmer tried her best to see her through education with the partial support of her uncle. However, with her determination to get high on the academic ladder in the face of poverty she has realized her dream.

From the University of Cape Coast in the year------------ she obtained a post-graduate diploma in Geography and continued to the University of Ghana to purse a Bachelor of Art Degree (Geography and Sociology) in ------------.At present(2007) she is working on her thesis for a masters in Educational Administration. She is the assistant headmistress, head of department of the social studies, secretary to the parent teacher’s association and the board of governors of Osu-Presec. In-------, when she was teaching at MacCarthy Hill Junior Secondary School she was the deputy head of the school. In her local church she is a deaconess, vice president national women missionary union, association president of women missionary union and a Sunday school teacher.

Some challenges she faces which she talked about has to do with she balancing family and work. She said both needs attention and she mostly closes late from school which makes her unable to cook meals but luck her daughter take care of that .She has the assistant headmistress has the responsibility of checking on both prefects and teachers on duty on the cleaning of the compound including general supervision, distribution of end of term student report to parents, attending meetings, seminars and workshops among other duties. In such a position she complained, how difficult it is to get people to do what they should do and the fact that some teachers do not keep deadlines for submissions.

She went ahead to suggest that in the school, departmental meetings should be conducted to make teachers intention known and be able to assess and evaluate work done in the school. She called on parents to pay their wards fees since it is very dishearting to see students sacked during major examination.

Her strength is from God who gives her new insight to her work.

Mrs. Adu-Gyamfi wants to be the best model for both teachers and students by working effectively and making positive impact on them. She acknowledged that Ghanaian women work hard from morning to evening ad that wherever God has placed them they should do their best while looking unto God their sustainer.