Prempeh College is a public secondary boarding school for boys located in Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The school was founded in 1949 by the Asanteman traditional authority, the British Colonial Government, the Methodist Church Ghana and the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. The school is named after the King of Ashanti (Asantehene), Sir Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II, who donated the land on which the school was built, and was modeled on Eton College in England.
The school topped matriculation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2004, with 441 students admitted, and in 2012, with 296 students from the college admitted. The school has won the National Robotics Championships a record five times between 2013 and 2021. In 2016, Prempeh College won the Toyota Innovation Award at the International Robofest World Championships held in Michigan, USA.
History
In the early 1940s, the British Colonial Government invited the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, which had already established schools in the Southern zone based on their experience, to help set up a school in the middle belt of Ghana to serve the northern sector of the country. Although there were some delays due to the Second World War, Prempeh College was designed in 1948 by British modernist architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
Compared to other works by Jane Drew in the Ashanti region, Prempeh College campus was designed to incorporate modernist refinements, as described by Lain Jackson and Jessica Holland in their book titled The Architecture of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew: Twentieth Century Pioneer Modernism and the tropics.
According to the Ashanti Pioneer newspaper, the opening ceremony of Prempeh College was held on February 5, 1949, when Major C. O. Butler, the chief commissioner of Ashanti, said in an address:
"There is a great and growing need for training men to take up posts of responsibility not just as clerks in offices but in Agricultural Education, Mining, Forestry, Architecture, Engineering and Building in the many other technical posts on the fulling of which by Africans the future development of Ashanti and the Gold Coast as a whole largely depends … We British from overseas are here to help you ultimately to administer the country yourselves … until you yourselves can provide the agriculturalists, engineers, the technicians and the tradesmen who can develop the natural resources of your country."
In summary the college was expected to produce scientists and technocrats who could play vital roles in the economy of the Gold Coast. At the same opening ceremony, Prempeh II outlined his expectation for Prempeh College: the hope that the "students of the college would shine not only in the intellectual field but also in the moral firmament".
As of 2012, the headmaster was E. K. Yeboah, a member of CHASS.
Uniform
The school uniform includes a green shirt with the college crest. Students wear this to class on a daily basis. For ceremonial purposes, students wear a green jacket with embroidery of the college crest. The college blazer (suit) was in use from the beginning in 1949, was dropped in the 1980s, and was revived in 2003. Students wear the college suit for ceremonial purposes, such as speech days and graduation ceremonies.
School magazine
The magazine of Prempeh College has long been called The Stool. It is a 100-page document that gives annual reports for the school. With a patron, an editorial board, and the SRC, they deliver the all-formidable magazine to the student body. What has always been featured, for example, are perceptions about the school from outside, short messages from students of the college to other schools, interviews with alumni, and many other interesting features.