History of Kumasi Academy
Kumasi Academy is a public senior high school located in Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Founded in 1957 by the American Baptist Missionary Union, Kumasi Academy was first named as the Sadler Baptist School. The missionaries acquired a plot of land from the chiefs and people of Asokore-Mampong in 1954.
In 1956, a middle school and a seminary school were established on the plot of land. A secondary school was added to the middle school and the seminary by Rev. Poe that same year. He named it Sadler Baptist College after one year of the missionaries in 1957. Rev. Poe, who established the secondary school, became the first headmaster of Sadler Baptist School.
In 1960, the seminary was moved from Asokore-Mampong to Abuakwa, leaving the secondary school at its present location, Asokore-Mampong. Poe was later succeeded by Madam Nadine Lovan, another white missionary, as the head of the Sadler Baptist School. The school has since become one of the most popular schools in Ghana because of the Baptist missionaries’ strict adherence to discipline.
Later, the then government wanted to have a say in the administration and running of the school. The Baptist Mission was not the type that would take kindly to that policy and was not prepared to acquiesce in this interference since it believed in the complete separation between religion and government. In circumstances, the Mission found it more expedient to leave the scene and handed over the school to the government on two conditions, viz, that the name “Sadler Baptist” be changed and that the teaching of religion in the school should be in the hands of the Baptist Mission. The government accepted this offer and “Sadler Baptist Secondary School” was eventually phased out.
