Home Alumnae The  MGHS Projects Events Gallery Video Blog Contact

METHODIST GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION

Ontario, Canada

Construction - All rights reserved © Made by Websites by Francetta

Mrs Fashu Collier

THE CHERISHED LEGACY OF MRS. FASHU COLLIER

Mrs. Fashu Collier did her early high school education at the Methodist Girls’ High School and was transferred to the Annie Walsh Memorial School, where she sat to her school leaving exams before proceeding to England for higher education. She returned to Freetown and took up a position as a teacher at her beloved alma mater. She taught for a short while before she proceeded to England for post-graduate training as a principal. She returned to Freetown thereafter to take up the position as principal.

A devout Christian, a dedicated principal and a firm disciplinarian, Mrs. Collier manned the respect of not only her teachers, and pupils, but also her ancillary staff. She ensured that the pupils respect authority, appreciate good values and acquire integrity while they attended the school. It was during her days that there were “order marks for bad behavior, language mark for not speaking English while in uniform, below average marks for not doing well” on Report Cards.

During her tenure, she improved the enhancement of a good teaching/learning environment also made provisions for a much-needed infrastructure at the school.

In 1965, Mrs. Collier saw the need for a residence hall for students whose parents do not live in the area and wanted a safe environment for their daughters, she then started the boarding home 32 years after it was closed. In addition to providing the boarders with a safe environment, she also ensured that they attend weekly church service at the Jehovah Shammah Methodist Church at Congo Town, which was a 15 minutes’ walk or 7 minutes’ drive from the school. The fellowship helped the girls with their spiritual growth during the period they were at school.

At a curry lunch hosted by Rev. & Mrs. Gill, Mrs. Collier met with a German, Rev. Butler, who was in Freetown to identify projects that could be financed through Bro Fru Die Welt, Bread of the World. As a result of that contact, the school was blessed to have a dining hall with kitchen for the borders, a block of six staff flats, and a principal residence. A Ministry of Education IDA project at that time provided an assembly hall, showers, toilets, office blocks, additional classrooms, a physics lab, block of specialists’ rooms, for Home Economics, Commercial and Arts subjects. The school expanded to new dimensions.

Without the pupils, there would have been no school, Mrs. Collier has always maintained that. She has been proud of many of her past pupils, who today, are in responsible positions in the teaching, nursing, medical, legal, banking, commercial corporations, as well as in the international arena at the State Department, UN, WHO, FAO, IMF, the World Bank, and the ECA.

Past pupils, who were in school during her tenure, loved her and are proud of her. With the stride of her steps, the click in her heels when she walks around the school, she commands the respect of a phenomenal woman. That’s Mrs. Collier!

~ Submitted by Gloria Allen – MGHS Alumna