Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School


Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School is a secondary boarding school for boys, in Legon, Accra, Ghana. It was founded in 1938, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast. The Basel missionary, Nicholas Timothy Clerk, who served as the first Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1918 to 1932, used his tenure to advocate for the establishment of the secondary school. The school has ties with its sister schools, Aburi Girls' Senior High School and Krobo Girls Senior High School.
The school's crest has a shield with the Presbyterian symbol with the motto of the school, "In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen", meaning "In Thy Light We Shall See Light", scrolled beneath the shield. The school was originally located in Odumase - Krobo in the Eastern Region of Ghana before moving to its current location in Legon, in 1968.
The school anthem is "Happy Are We", written by J. L. Anang and transcribed by Stephen Appiah Danquah.

Houses

The school was started in Odumase after a Ghanaian educationist with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, E. A. W. Engmann, lobbied for a boys' school to be started by the church. This came to fruition in 1938 with the first group of 16 boys and four teachers. Rev. Engmann was the first headmaster.
The Odumase campus housed German missionaries, then a primary school and then a government survey school before becoming the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School.
One of the traditions of the school is the ɔdadeɛ located on the campus. An alumnus of the school is referred to as Ɔdadeɛ. The baobab tree is a Ghanaian symbol of knowledge, resourcefulness and strength. New students were traditionally initiated at the feet of this tree clad in bedsheets and powdered faces. PRESEC was located here until 1968 when it was moved to its current location at Legon, Mile 9.

Legon campus (1968 to date)

In September 1968, the new campus at Legon just north east of the University of Ghana campus at Mile 9, received its first set of students. At the new campus, it continued as a boys' boarding secondary school until the mid-1970s when the sixth form was upgraded to the National Science College. Female students were admitted into the sixth form in small numbers from September 1975. They continued to be part of the student body until June 1996 when the last batch left.
The Legon campus started with four student boarding houses. Three were named after notable Presbyterian leaders as Kwansa House, Clerk House, and Engmann House. The fourth was named Akro House after the people of Krobo at Odumase. The next two houses to be built were Riis House and Labone House. With the completion of the National Science College buildings, Ako Adjei House and Owusu-Parry House were added. Another dormitory, House 9, admitted its first residents in September 2010 as well as a new house, House 10.

Achievements

PRESEC regularly had one of the best GCE O-level and A-level results prior to the change of the national examination system to BECE and WASSCE.

Notable alumni

Politics, government, and public policy