This historic 1934 photograph preserved in the Basel Mission Archives (BMA D-30.67.026) shows 21 Standard VII girls at the Basel Mission Girls’ School in Agogo, then in the Gold Coast. The Basel Mission Archives identifies the girls as confirmation candidates.
Historical records state that the first confirmation of the school’s foundation girls took place on 25 March 1934.
The 21 girls were then in Standard VII and had received confirmation instruction from July 1933 to March 1934.
The Basel Mission Girls’ School and the Basel Mission Women’s Training College were established at Agogo on 1 March 1931, following a 1928 request for the establishment of a girls’ school in Ashanti. The institutions formed part of the Basel Mission’s efforts to provide education for girls and train Ghanaian women as teachers.
The Girls’ School also served as a practice or demonstration school for students of the Women’s Training College.
The complete names of all 21 pupils have not been established from the sources consulted for this post.
Nevertheless, the photograph remains a valuable visual record of girls’ education, missionary schooling and women’s teacher training in the Gold Coast during the colonial period.
