Sugru Sweeney clutching her trophy in the company of her colleagues. INSET: Sugru (left) and Samuel during an encounter
Thirteen-year-old Sugru Sweeney, a student of Savannah International Academy (SIA) – a centre of academic excellence in Tamale – has emerged champion in a recent chess contest for kids in her age bracket.
As a young transformational change agent, an initiative of the school to use kids to effect positive social alteration, the girl stood out in the contest in a manner which won her enormous plaudits. Chess is one of the extracurricular activities taught at SIA as part of the school’s unique Curriculum Enrichment Programme (CEP).
The Ghana Chess league Junior Division Championship for the Northern Zone for pupils aged between eight and 18 was held at the Tamale Senior High School (Tamasco) last weekend in the Northern regional capital.
An excited staffer of the school said “it was a clean sweep by Sugru of SIA and we’re so proud of her achievement.”
The CEO and co-founder of SIA, Mrs. Sardia Mould, said the introduction of chess as a curriculum enrichment programme was intended to promote critical and creative thinking. The impact of the novelty in its second term since inception is already visible in the cognitive development of the kids, she added.
Mrs. Mould was also grateful to the Northern regional chairman of the Ghana Chess Association, Mr. Bismark Anaba, for facilitating the introduction of the subject at SIA.
Sugru’s performance in the competition provides a clear example of the sound intellectual development and quality education that she is acquiring from a school that operates locally but thinks globally.
Sugru’s feat comes at the heels of the triumph of a Nigerian homeless refugee Tanitoluwa Adewumi in a chess championship in New York, US.
The kid is reported to have learnt how to play the game of cognition only a year ago.
The story of the Nigerian which has gone viral worldwide has earned his family not only fame but also a home and a big money bag.
According to the New York Times, Tanitoluwa has also attracted scholarship offers from three elite private schools and a six-figure bank account which he and his parents have decided to dedicate to the church which helped them and to, as the paper put it, “other struggling African immigrants like themselves.”
SIA was established as a centre of academic excellence providing relevant education in order to develop global citizens who are mindful of their responsibility to self and society.
By A.R. Gomda