The Man Anthony Kwame De Youngster is an Educationist

Mr. Anthony Kwame De Youngster shot up on to the scene of Educationists in 1967 when he
graduated from the Accra Training College and was enrolled into the guild of trained teachers in
the Kotobabi 7 Primary School where he taught for five years in fulfillment of his bond to the
Government of Ghana before yielding to please and persuasions from some private schools
namely; Ridge Church School and Aggrey Memorial International School both in Accra.

Mr. De Youngster joined the Ridge Church School in 1972 after having served his five-year
bond as he promised the management of the school who poured the pressure on him immediately
after he completed the Accra Training College. He said, “my conscience will not forgive me if I
fail to honor the bond, I signed so let me finish serving and I will join immediately after service”.

With his penchant, for honoring his promises it was of no wonder therefore that Mr. De
Youngster joined the Ridge Church School as the first male teacher in 1972 immediately after
serving the bond.

The Ridge Church School, then headed by Mrs. Osae Addo saw its turning point during the era
of Mr. De Youngster as the Common Entrance Class Teacher between 1972 and 1977 when
every pupil in his class thus the common entrance class, passed and gained admission into their
first-choice schools. Discipline in the school also got to its peak as the children were punctual to
school and one seldom got punished for wrongdoing given the fact that the only male teacher in
the school would not spare the rod if any of them willfully committed any wrong act.

The reputation of the Ridge Church School soared so high that both Public and Private Schools
in the neighborhood started inquiring into the source of their success story.

In September 1977, thus after another five years of dedicated service to the Ridge Church
School, Mr. Anthony De Youngster was won over by the management of Aggrey Memorial
International School near the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation premises who had seen his good
works in the Ridge School as far back as 1973 when he was only a year old in the school.

Mr. Anthony De Youngster joined Aggrey memorial International School in 1977 as the
Headteacher and true to their expectation brought about a lot of changes into their academic
culture which immediately started showing signs of very good results with the number of passes
in their common entrance examinations where from their usual fifty to fifty-five percentage
passes moved to seventy-five and eighty-five percentage passes.

In 1980, Mr. De Youngster resigned from Aggrey Memorial International School when the
authorities in the school failed to honor three suggestions for reforms that he said were needed
for the development of the school namely, the provision of a duplication machine, the reservation
of a quarter of the income at the end of the year for the development of the school and the need
for some changes in the mode of running the school. He had stated emphatically that if these
conditions were not fulfilled, he was going to resign and true to his word in September 1980, Mr.
De Youngster resigned from Aggrey memorial International School when the management
declined to honour his proposals.

After honor resignation from Aggrey Memorial in September 1980, he came home and started
his own school- De Youngster International School with sixty-eight pupils by the end of the first
term in 1980.

In 1981, he officially opened the school at Kokomlemle registering it with the GES with over
one hundred pupils. By September 1985, the school had started making a name among the big
schools within the Greater Accra Region. It was of no wonder therefore that one Mr. Tweneboah
then of City Business College (CIBUSCO) - Accra prevailed over him to register the school with
the Ghana National Association of Private Schools which he did in that same year (1985).

Having joined the Private Schools Association Mr. De Youngster’s influence in school
management came to bear as he advocated for a Regional Secretariat to ensure the effective
running of the Association in the Region.

In 1986, he provided an office in his school for use as the Greater Accra Regional Secretariat of
GNAPS. With the introduction of the GNAPS week celebration in 1989, Mr. De Youngster
ensured that every child in all his three schools with a population of almost three thousand had
copies of the caps that were produced for sale to students in Private Schools for the celebration
of GNAPS week. He thus became the leading seller of the caps in the Greater Accra Region. He
went on to ensure the organization and fullest participation of all his schools in the celebrations.

In 1991, Mr. De Youngster was unanimously elected as the chairman of Zone 10 of GNAPS in
the Greater Accra Region, which became the leading zone in organization and participation in all
activities of the Association in the Region.

It was of no wonder therefore that in 1993, the Regional Association unanimously elected him as
the Greater Accra Regional Chairman.

It could be said that GNAPS has produced very excellent chairman in Greater Accra but the one
who stands out after Madam Victoria Asare Agyemang as an astute Chairman is Mr. Anthony
Kwame De Youngster.

After only three years of chairing the Greater Accra Regional branch of GNAPS, Mr. De
Youngster was elected to the second vice Presidentship of the Association at the National Level
at a National Conference held at the University of Ghana – Legon in 1996.

In 1998, he was pressurized by some ardent supporters to contest for the Presidency of the
Association but he protested giving the fact that, he was constructing a new school block which
needed his total attention. The pressure increased with appeals from people in Accra and Kumasi
such that he had no option but to yield saying ‘the will of the Lord should be done”.

All this while he had prayed and fasted with his wife Auntie Mary (now, deceased) for the will
of God to prevail because he had been yearning to complete the project that year so as to transfer
some of his students there. At the elections he was beaten by one vote to the presidency by one
Mama Adokuwa Asigble IV the Queenmother of Tefle Traditional Area in the Volta Region and
Proprietress of Royal International School at Tema.

He therefore openly praised the Lord for the loss to the astonishment of all present. When he was
pushed to explain he told the story above saying it was the will of God which had prevailed.

Thinking that he would this time be left to handle the school affairs he nominated his
Headteacher to represent him at all GNAPS meetings but that was not to be given the fact that
the new National Executive kept inviting him to meetings and again consulted him on any
decision they made in times of his absence at meetings which made him a Defacto member of
the National Executive which later culminated in his being made the National Advisor to the
National Executive Committee with a limitless tenure of office. He thus has become the face of
Private Schools in Ghana at the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and to all
bodies that have one thing or the other to do with Private Schools.

In times of emergency calls on GNAPS, thus at the death of a member or on occasions that need
the presence of Private School owners, Mr. De Youngster’s door is knocked upon for the
attention of all Private Schools in Ghana. He has thus become a gift from God to private Schools
in the country. That is the man Anthony Kwame De Youngster.

Facts put together by Nana Owusu Kyenkyehene (Former General Secretary of GNAPS).