Dream big, study hard – Nana Adjoa Hackman motivates 2,000 BECE candidates

The managing partner of Africa Legal Associates (ALA), Nana Adjoa Hackman, has told young people of Ghana that they can be whatever they want to be but only if they study hard, with discipline and commitment.

She said this when she addressed over 2,000 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in Koforidua on Saturday (24 June).

She told the huge gathering, which included teachers, that the future of the students will be remarkably different from today because of significant developments such as the efforts to build a single market in Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the deepening of globalisation and the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The highly regarded corporate lawyer, who has two Master’s degrees from the University of Dundee in Scotland and Imperial College, London, stressed to the young people at the gathering that opportunities abound for them in their world out there.

All they have to do now is to concentrate on their studies and use all the modern tools available to them responsibly to gather more and more knowledge, she said.

She said that the better prepared people are, the more easily they attract the opportunities that life will bring their way.

When the managing partner of ALA first took the microphone, only two or three of the students raised their hands when she enquired if any of them wanted to be lawyers. By the time she finished, however, hundreds of them were eager to pursue law and began asking her to mentor them.

She encouraged them not to be afraid to aim higher than their immediate environment suggests they can. They must not be afraid of subjects such as the sciences, which they may not think they are good at but can achieve a great deal in if they persevere, she said.

Importantly, she urged, they must see education as their ticket to broadening their horizons beyond their immediate dreams.

Nana Adjoa Hackman joined Michael Okyere Baafi, the MP for New Juaben South in the Eastern Region, to launch the MP’s special classes and career guidance and counselling for 2023 BECE candidates in the constituency.

Endless prospects

Addressing the BECE candidates at the Full Gospel Church International auditorium in Koforidua, the venue for the ceremony on Saturday, Nana Adjoa Hackman, the guest speaker for the occasion, told the students that their studies must be their primary focus.

“The world out there is full of opportunities, and the better prepared you are, the better you are able to take these opportunities. You can go as far as you want to go. You can go as high as you want to go. There is no limit.

“You can do things as diverse as you want to. You don’t have to just do one thing or the same thing [as everyone else]. The world that you are growing up in right now is different from the world that we grew up in, and it requires a different kind of people to survive in it,” she told the BECE candidates.

No better time

Speaking to journalists after the ceremony, Ms Hackman said she agreed to take part in the launch because she considers the initiative an excellent one.

She added that there is no better time to guide and expose the younger generation to the world they currently live in, what the world they will be living in will look like in the future and the important choices they have to make to subsist in it.

“I spoke to them about the changes that are taking place in the world now. The world they are growing up in is going to be very different [in the future], it is already changing and it is changing at a very fast pace.

“There is AI [Artificial Intelligence], there is climate change, there is ESG [environmental, social and governance investing] and sustainability, and these things are determining what happens, and these things are going to determine what the future of work is going to look like,” she said.

“It is going to determine what careers are going to be important in the future. So, it is important that we expose the children at this early stage to these things so that they can prepare themselves,” she said.

2023 BECE

The 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) will commence on Monday 7 August and end on Friday 11 August 2023. Candidates will be examined in nine subjects in total, comprising essay-type questions and objectives.

The subjects are religious and moral education, English language, integrated science, Ghanaian language and culture, social studies, basic design and technology, mathematics, information and communications technology and French.

NJS Municipal Assembly

The New Juaben South (NJS) Municipal Assembly was established in 2017 under Legislative Instrument (LI) 2301. It was previously New Juaben Municipal Assembly but took its present name after the northern part of the assembly areawas carved out.

New Juaben South Municipal Assembly is one of the 33 municipal assemblies in the Eastern Region and covers a land area of 60 square kilometres.

It shares boundaries with the following assemblies: in the north with New Juaben North Municipal, to the south-east with Akwapim North Municipal and to the east Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly.

New Juaben South is one of the best educational hubs in Ghana. It has many facilities which plays a significant role in education and skill development.

Tertiary institutions such as Koforidua Technical University, All Nations University, Ghana Telecom University College and the Nursing and Midwifery Training College attract students from all over the world.

Other sought-after universities have opened up branch campuses in the municipality.

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