An aerial view of the school. Inset: The Pishigu Lana arriving at the venue
The Savannah International Academy (SIA), one of the top ranking private schools in Tamale, has scored 100% in the IGCSE O Level.
The SIA headmaster, Faruk Iliasu, disclosed the feat recently during the school’s speech and prize giving day on the school’s grounds in Tamale recently.
The SIA as a trail blazer in the Northern Region has specially modeled academic template for students in the school, which prepares them for the challenges of the world.
As an institution, he said, “SIA was primarily established to bridge the gap between the standard of educational provision in the north and south. This obviously does not mean there are no good schools in the North, but we provide a choice for parents to make decisions about the career and educational aspirations of their children.”
SIA, he said with relish, is the only school in the whole of the northern regions accredited by Cambridge Assessment International Exams (CAIE) body.
“We are also a British Council Partner. Our students also entered for two international competitions – The Queens Commonwealth Essay Competition 2022 and Mental Math World Cup 2022. In the Mental Maths World Cup, we entered nine students, five of whom qualified to the Grandmaster Final. Indeed, our students secured the 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9th positions nationwide. However, globally, five have gone through to the finals. For us, it is not only about winning. The significant increase in participation and enthusiasm of students in both competitions is what mattered most at this stage. That is our achievement.”
SIA has introduced an Academic Intervention Services Plan (AISP) to assist and support students who were struggling in certain subjects. Explaining this, the headmaster said “students who were in this category were put on an AIS plan.
The programme, he announced, “has borne significant fruits and led to remarkable improvements in the performances of our learners who were identified as being weak in certain areas of study.”
As part of their CEP and service to the community, SIA students visit local schools to support them in literacy and numeracy, a routine which was suspended over COVID-19. “Next academic year, we hope we will be able to resume this service,” he said.
The Chairman for the occasion, Pishigu Lana Alhassan Andani, congratulated the school for the feats chalked and stated that SIA was established to bridge the gap between the North and South, offering also a choice for parents.