Biography of the late Dr.Joyce Asibey (Former Headmistress of Aburi girls')

Dr. Joyce Asibey

Education

Award Winner

Dr. Joyce Asibey was born in 1931 and was educated at Achimota School. She was the first recipient of the “Lady Burns Scholarship” which was instituted by Lady Burns, the wife of Sir Allan Burns, the then British Governor of the Gold Coast to be awarded to the female candidate who topped the list for the girls in the Secondary School Selection Examination (subsequently known as the Common Entrance Examination).

In 1950 she was among the first batch of 27 students who sat for the first ever Cambridge Higher School Certificate Examination in West Africa.  She continued to the University where she read for the B.A. (Hons) Geography degree (1956) and Diploma in Education (1957) at Reading University in the United Kingdom.  She undertook post-graduate programme in Geography at the University of Indiana in the U.S.A.

Immediately after completing her academic studies at Reading, she returned to Ghana and joined the staff at Aburi Girls Secondary School where she taught Geography.  Her competence, diligence, conscientiousness and leadership qualities ensured that by 1971, that is within just 14 years, she had risen to become the Headmistress of Aburi Girls, the first African to head the school. She retired in 1988 and her tenure as Headmistress is credited with an expansion in student intake coupled with a remarkable qualitative rise in academic standards.

Mrs. Asibey is so revered by the Aburi Girls Family that on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the school in 1996 a plaque which was unveiled by the Head of State was raised in her honour.  It is no surprise that the Aburi Old Girls Association named the school’s Assembly Hall and Library which was her brain child, (“JOYCE ASIBEY HALL”).

The University of Ghana on the occasion of its own Golden Jubilee in 1999, also awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law to Mrs. Asibey for her contribution to Secondary Education in Ghana, especially to the education of girls. Similarly she was honoured by the State in 2006, the Order of The Volta (Companion) was conferred on her by the President of the Republic of Ghana.

Dr. Asibey was also an Examiner/Chief Examiner of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC, 1960-88), Secretary of the Ghana Geographical Association (1965-70), Member of the Executive Board and Full Council Member of WAEC (1985-88) and President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior Secondary Schools (CHASS, 1985-88).  She was also a Member of the Councils of the University of Ghana (1986-88) and of the University of Cape Coast (1988-90).

After retiring, Dr. Asibey placed her unparalleled expertise at the disposal of the American Peace Corps/Ghana from 1988 to 1991, first as an Education Sector Specialist and then as Associate Director (Education).