Jane Elizabeth Clerk (26 May 1904 – 5 July 1999) was a Gold Coast schoolteacher and a public educationadministrator.[1][2] During the colonial era, she was among an early generation of pioneer women educators who eventually became principals of major government schools.[1] In that period, Jane Clerk was the Headmistress of the Government Girls’ Middle School in Kumasi.[1]
Her older brother, Carl Henry Clerk (1895 –1982), an editor, agricultural educationist, administrator, journalist and Presbyterian minister served as the fourth Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1950 to 1954 and the Editor of the Christian Messenger newspaper between 1960 and 1963.[10][11][12]Theodore Clerk (1909 – 1965), her younger brother was the first Ghanaian architect who planned and developed the port city of Tema.[13][14][15] Her younger sister, Matilda J. Clerk (1916 – 1984) was the second Ghanaian female medical doctor as well as the first woman in Ghana and West Africa to earn a postgraduate diploma.[16][17]
Education and training
Jane Clerk had her early education at the Basel Mission primary school at Larteh Akuapem where her father was stationed as the district minister for that presbytery.[1] She proceeded to an all-girls’ boarding school at Aburi, a town her grandfather had lived in.[1] She attended the Aburi Women's Teacher Training College (now the Presbyterian Women's College of Education) where she studied pedagogy and was one of two students in the school's first batch in 1928.[1][2] In 1946, Jane Clerk was among a select group of senior teachers who were awarded mid-career scholarships for further professional training abroad at the University of London's Institute of Education which today forms part of the University College London, where she earned an Associate Certificate in Education on completion of the eighteen-month course.[1]
Career
Jane Clerk taught at various schools at Aburi and Agogo during her early career.[1] She was transferred to Kumasi and appointed the Headmistress of the Government Girls’ School.[1] She was later elevated to the position of assistant education officer in 1947.[1] In 1952, she became an education officer for the city of Koforidua where her roles and responsibilities included general supervision and inspection of schools, a man's domain at the time.[1] She retired from her teaching career in 1959.[1]
Death
She died of natural causes in 1999 in Osu, Accra at the age of ninety-five.[1] Her remains were interred at the Osu Cemetery in Accra.
References
^ abcdefghijklmClerk, Nicholas, T. (27 July 1999). Obituary: Jane Elizabeth Clerk, 1904 -1999. Accra: Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Funeral Bulletin. p. 1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abcdClerk, N. T. (1943). The Settlement of West Indian Emigrants on the Gold Coast 1843-1943 - A Centenary Sketch. Accra. Accra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Dawes, Mark (7 October 2003). "A Ghanaian church built by Jamaicans". old.jamaica-gleaner.com. Jamaican Gleaner. Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
^"Osu Salem". 29 March 2017. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
^Patton, Adell Jr. (13 April 1996). Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (1st ed.). Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p. 29. ISBN9780813014326.
^Clerk, Nicholas, T. (5 January 1985). Obituary: Dr. Matilda Johanna Clerk, MBChB, DTM&H. Accra: Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Funeral Bulletin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)