The Story of Maritha Osekre-Amey
Maritha Osekre-Amey is the founder of Westfield Bridge College. Westfield Bridge College was founded in 2020. Our purpose is to make quality, world-class education accessible to every student (ages 12–17) in Ghana, regardless of sex, tribe, location, or circumstance. Our ambition is to operate a fit-for-purpose school that enhances the Ghanaian national curriculum (unlike our peers) by incorporating the use of modern technology, emotional intelligence and well-defined intellectual climates in Accra, Ghana, by 2025.
We have created a unique product mix of standard curriculum, apprenticeship and project work in an ICT-focused environment. The services have been designed to deliver the value placed on quality education for the targeted audience. The school is strategically located for easy accessibility, with a modern structure designed to be functional, aesthetically pleasing and accessible to disabled students. We run ongoing campaigns on social and print media to increase our visibility, as well as in-person campaigns.
We have rolling admissions to ensure that opportunities are always created for population growth. We also provide scholarships for underprivileged children.
We have also partnered with INNOVA DDB, a leading advertising company here in Ghana and Africa, to create opportunities to bridge the gap between academia and industry practice. We have more such partnerships in the works. We were also chosen to contribute to the SHS national curriculum development project by the Ghana National Council of Private Schools. Our commitment to accessible education and social impact drives our mission.
When did you realize you wanted to be a social entrepreneur? How did you define your purpose?
A realization that there was a 'great' scarcity of graduates with problem-solving mindsets in Ghana' when I tried to recruit staff for my startup forced me to research ways to change this status quo. I had always been interested in education, and knowing the singular power of a deliberately designed and targeted curriculum focused on attaining a desired outcome, I knew I was in a position to make a difference.
Fortunately, the timing was right as the Ministry of Education, Ghana, had just embarked on a mission to change the national curriculum to the Common Core Program (CCP), which would move the student away from a memorization culture that is solely exam-focused to acquiring practical knowledge that will prepare them for further education and/or the world of work.
This situation presented opportunities for me to capitalize on the agility of a small, privately owned institution to implement certain aspects quickly and successfully. Our school is set up to provide the needed elements to achieve the full aims of the CCP proposal.
Best of all, through our scholarship program, we are also providing opportunities for the less fortunate youth, especially girls, to access a fully resourced school offering an enhanced program that will change the quality of Ghana's and Africa's future workforce.
What was your first project? What were your lessons learned?
Our first project focused on youth aged 19–29; however, we quickly came to the conclusion that starting with younger students would be more impactful. That is why I shifted my attention to high school students, who were more open to change. That was a lesson I learned fast, and time has proven that it was a good shift in direction and focus group.
Describe your journey. Smooth sailing or a roller coaster ride?
WBC operations started in the midst of COVID. We had to train our teachers remotely on Zoom and Google Classroom to continue lessons with students who had previously only done very limited work with ICT. They later onboarded students through the same method. In 2021, we returned to brick-and-mortar operations. Limited finances and uncertainty over COVID recurrence plagued our operations.
Although we persevered, we struggled with growth. Then, in January 2023, we were able to operationalize the next phase of our project, which had stalled for two years—our first set of Senior High School (SHS) students started classes with 7 students. Surprisingly, our first vacation classes attracted 31 students within the first 3 months! This proved our method was working. We had gained a reputation for quality teaching and a rich curriculum. We also successfully placed our students in their first internship program with the Judiciary Services of Ghana. We are growing steadily and organically, yet slower than anticipated. We have been limited in our campaigns, especially for our SHS, because we do not have enough classrooms and boarding facilities. To mitigate this, we are expanding the school facilities. We have the capacity to expand from two to five levels.
What are you building right now? What is your ambition?
We just completed an additional floor of the school building, thereby creating space for: 4 new classrooms with the capacity to accommodate up to 120 additional students; a sick bay; a library; and a 40-bed boarding facility for girls. We now need support to furnish all these spaces with equipment, i.e., computer hardware and software, audiovisual equipment, books (actual and virtual) for the library, and science lab equipment. We also successfully placed our students for their first internship program with the Judiciary Services of Ghana and signed a partnership agreement with a leading advertising agency to collaborate with our school to provide industry-specific input and training for our students.
How can everyone support you?
We are planning on growing the school through infrastructure development. We are also embarking on a project to support low-resourced schools in remote areas of Ghana through ICT by providing connectivity, hardware and teaching assistance (through a remote connection to our live classes). We have a great opportunity to grow both our school and others who are unable to access quality education for the simple reason of poverty. Achieving SDG 4 is possible and within reach with these win-win projects that benefit all stakeholders. Please join us to make a difference and push the dial closer to the SDG goals.
If you would like to learn more about Westfield Bridge College, please visit the website or social media pages.
