The idea to establish PERSCO started in 1956 when a delegation from approached Fr. Cletus Hodapp of Society of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) with a proposal of establishing a school in Nkwatia. After a meeting between the then Nkwatiahene Nana Asante Yaidom III and his elders and Bishop Joseph Bowers of Accra, a decision was taken to start the school and the present location was given by the
people of Nkwatia. Fr Clement Hotze was appointed as the first headmaster of the school on 10 January 1957. Classes began on 5 February 1957 at Mr Onwona Farkye’s house with 36 students and 2 tutors, Mr Agyare teaching the sciences and Fr Hotze teaching the art subjects. In 1958, the first science block was built with the help of labour from the Nkwatia people, followed by the SVD house, the offices and the dining hall in 1960. In September of that same year, PERSCO received approval from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to present science candidates. The first speech and price giving day was held in June 1961 and the first class of 15 fifth formers passed out. In October 1964, the school enrolled 15 students to start its first form six class. November 1964 marked a turning point in the life of the school when Rev. Linzenbach, SVD architect and director of planning Steyl (Rome) arrived to stake out plans for a new dormitory block to be jointly financed by the bishops of Germany and SVD. In June 1965, the class of fifth formers who sat the ‘O’ Level Examinations were the first to get 100% pass in the history of the school and the school has since then been recording impressive performances in all examinations. The first old boy of the school graduated from the then University of Science and Technology. In December 1969, the great hockey team of the school won its first Eastern Regional Championship and retained the laurel for three consecutive times. After 10 years of WEAC’s approval for science candidates, the school received approval for ‘O’ Level Art courses, followed by ‘A’ Level Business courses in 1972. Agricultural Science and German courses also received approval in 1974 and triple stream ‘O’ Level was began and Music in 1975.
