Before then, the chairman of the Board, Rev. Dr. F.K. Fiawoo, had remarked that he would not accept “a meager sum for the construction of a hut” for the school when the school was voted an amount regarded by many as a mere pittance, in view of existing price levels, for the construction of the school building at the new site. After some negotiations, the Ghana Education Trust Fund, established by the Kwame Nkrumah government took over the construction of the buildings.
The wind of change and general excitement that greeted the attainment of republican status in 1960 was not restricted to the streets of Accra alone. Its echoes reverberate far, even to Keta, and precisely to a site which would later become KETA SECONDARY SCHOOL.
On November 4th 1960, just a few months after Ghana had changed her academic year, Mr. K.A. Gbedemah, the then Minister of Finance, visited the present site and laid the foundation stone for the building of some school blocks. As a follow-up to that visit, the then president of the Republic, the great Dr. Kwame Nkrumah himself adorned the scenery of the compound with a visit on 21st December 1960 during which he planted an Indian almond tree that still stands as a historical monument and provides a comforting shade near the present Assistant Headmaster’s bungalow. The initial foundation laying ceremony bore fruit just a year later when a group of students in Forms Two and Four moved from the old to the present site on 11th September 1961.
The site accommodated one classroom block, an administration block, an assembly hall and science laboratory. The rest of the students followed a year later. Mr. R.E.K. Matanawui, the then Assistant Headmaster mooted the idea of establishing a hostel after having realized that a group of students, who had traveled from far-off places to the school in pursuit of the ‘golden fleece’ (knowledge), had no place to lay their heads. The school was then a day school. The students sought refuge in the dining hall which was the one building partially vacant. By that time, it was becoming increasingly clear that for the school to continue pursuing its educational goals and providing the needed tutelage for the diverse categories of its pupils, especially those who hailed from outside the district and the region, provision must be made for some form of residential accommodation. But that was not to be until another chapter was opened in the annals of the school in 1967 with the admission of the first batch of Sixth Form pupils comprising 28 boys and 3 girls. That decision brought in its wake the introduction of boarding facilities. Ever since, the school has admitted both day and boarding students.
