Credit: Francis P. Ankrah Esq., Registrar
AsaseVee: Woman of timbre & calibre
Meet Mrs. Vincentia Mawunyo Fayorsey (née Asase), a devoted educationist, resilient leader, and proud alumna of Ada College of Education (AdaCoE) [then Ada Teacher Training College (AdaTCO), 1983]. Her journey as a volunteer teacher at the Methodist Primary School in Kojo Ashong, a village in the Ga West Municipal Assembly, to Principal at Mothercare school, the institution’s Cambridge IGCSE secondary campus (MCS International High), is a testament to deliberate choice, steadfast service to learners, and quiet stewardship of faith, family, and community.
Born into a household where the land and the church set the rhythm of daily life, Vincentia Mawunyo Asase drew her first lessons from the soil and the pew. Her father, Mr.Daniel Kwabena Asase of Sokpoe and Big Ada, was a commercial farmer; her mother, Madam Comfort Freda Aforkpa of Mafi-Sasekpoe and Dabala, kept the home with steady care. Sunday worship at the Divine Healers Church taught reverence, resilience, and a sense of service that later became the backbone of her vocation. After finishing Form 4 (Standard Seven) in 1979, family expectation nudged her toward nursing and she tried a brief placement at Korle‑Bu. She quit after a month, recognising that the hospital’s demands did not match the part of her that came alive with children, conversation, and the patient work of shaping young minds. She turned to the classroom, where her warmth, languages, and instinct for guidance would find their truest expression.
Her formal teaching life began as a volunteer teaching assistant at the Methodist School in Kojo Ashong. Her steadiness and care attracted attention; when Reverend Ntreh of the Methodist Education Unit visited. He inquired after the young helper and arranged for her employment as a pupil teacher on salary. In 1983 she followed a friend’s lead and applied for training, at Abetifi training collage. Asthma and the mountain chill at Abetifi induced her transfer to the Ada Teacher Training College, where she would grow into leadership.
At Ada, affectionately known as AsaseVee to her peers, she lived in Liberation Hall (House 2), found a steady mentor in Mr. Kotey, the Music Master, and served as Scripture Union President. Asthma never kept her from campus life; she loved singing as a Soloist of the college even when she was not in the choir. The national hardships of 1983 tested everyone. Students survived on meagre kenkey and gari with the much‑maligned “gaso” sauce. But those days forged resilience. AdaCoE taught her independence, discipline, and a pragmatic realism that became the backbone of her work. She remembers the dawn sports with particular fondness; the long jogs from campus past Dove park to the beach, across from Otrokpe to Totimekope and back along Foahngua road, and the irreverent warmth of the “40 Days & 40 Nights” farewell rituals.
She also carries the memory of harsher lessons: collective punishments and backbreaking tasks like carrying clay from the wetlands across campus, experiences that tempered rather than broke her spirit. She sums it up plainly: “I was trained to be disciplined; I stand with the law and what is right. Collective punishments left me exasperated and wounded.”
Graduating in 1987, she began her professional posting to the Garrison Education Unit. Her First school was Forces Basic School, Burma Camp, teaching Class 3 for two years before transferring to 5BN Basic School and later serving at the Airforce Basic school, Base workshop Basic school, Complex Basic school (now Burma Camp Basic school) all at Burma Camp. Her decade in the Garrison Education Unit schools anchored her practice in structure, punctuality, and high expectations. She believed the independent study habits she developed at Ada was what enabled her while serving in the Garrison Education Unit, to prepare for and pass both O and A levels in a record time of two years.
She later completed diploma, graduate, and postgraduate programmes at the University of Education, Winneba, and took selected British education courses to strengthen her leadership and classroom methods.
In 1996, after marrying Mr. William Nenebi Kabutey Fayorsey, a journalist from Ada, Vincentia arranged a transfer to the Methodist Education Unit and returned to Kojo Ashong in 1997. She rose to Headteacher within two years, translating classroom experience into school-wide stewardship and pastoral care. After serving for two more years, she took time away from public service to focus on family life with her husband and their three children: a daughter and two sons.
Vincentia later entered private education. She spent a year at Blessed School Complex, Dansoman, and subsequently joined St. Paul’s Lutheran School’s Languages Department, where she taught Asante Twi and Ga for eleven years. She resigned from Lutheran in 2015 for rest and family priorities. But this was short-lived as in 2016, following recommendations from some stakeholders, she was head‑hunted for senior leadership and subsequently became Principal of MCS International High a subsidiary of Mothercare School.
A polyglot fluent in English, Ewe, Dangbe, Ga, Asante Twi, Fante, Akuapem Twi, and conversant in Hausa, Vincentia now fellowships with Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC), Accra, and names Psalm 23 as her daily guide. As Treasurer of the Ada Old Students Association, she urges alumni to give back, insisting that “the gesture matters more than the amount.” For Vincentia, AdaCoE’s lessons of discipline, pragmatism, and independence are the threads that run through a life devoted to service and steady leadership.
