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News and Media |
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18
Dec
2009 |
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Again, Let’s Go Back to Our Old Schools |
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| Thirteen days away from today, year 2009 will come to an end. The year has been a memorable one. As the saying goes, many waters have passed under the bridge. There are many of our compatriots who started the year with us but are no longer around. There are houses that were standing at the beginning of the year but have been reduced to rubbles today. The economic recession has left many businesses prostrate. The careers of certain individuals which were bright at the dawn of 2009 are now bleak at the twilight of the year. We pray to God to provide succour for those who find themselves in the unfortunate situations described above.
However, God in his infinite mercy has also spared some of us from all forms of calamities. For that benevolence of God, some are already planning different kinds of celebration to mark the end of the year. Some will go on wild celebration which will manifest in wining, dining and dancing. Some others are planning expensive trips and treats for themselves and their loved ones.
Indeed, there is nothing bad in people celebrating the end of year or giving themselves some good treat after experiencing God’s favour within the year and having the deep pockets to finance these luxurious outings. However, I believe this is the best period for people to ponder on their journey so far. The end of year is a perfect period for people to look back at the beginning of their journey in life and see how far they have gone. As part of this stock-taking, I implore the readers of this column to please find time to consider what they can do to help their alma mater or any public school in their area of domicile, their home town or any other part of the country.
I do not know of anybody in a privileged position in this country who has not gone through one school or the other. Over 90 percent of these schools are public schools. And these schools have been run down over the years through sheer neglect by the administrators, insufficient funding as a result of growing pressure on government funds and corruption. The state of our public schools has shown that government alone can no longer take care of them.
And these schools are part of our legacies as individuals. The public schools are part of the curriculum vitaes or personal history of most of us who now control the public and private sectors of the economy and the professions. Those who will proudly proclaim that they did not attend any public primary, secondary or tertiary schools have one of such schools in their neighbourhood or their hometown. Some of the individuals in the latter group benefited from such public schools indirectly through their spouses, their parents or parents-in-law.
I want to plead that it should be part of our culture that people who have benefited from the mercy of the lord by recording some financial successes or occupying some privileged positions or earning some regular income, to take it as a responsibility to contribute in upgrading the facilities and standard of learning in the public schools.
It should be a gratifying aspect of our lives for birthdays to be marked by donating facilities or contributing to the uplift of our schools. We should start the culture celebrating the anniversary of our departed parents or grand parents by sponsoring scholarship awards in public schools in the memory of the dead, or building libraries and laboratories, equipping them and helping to train teachers in public schools. Successful people who occupy top posts need to imbibe the practice of hosting their friends and associates within the premises of their alma mater and canvassing for support of different kinds for these public schools. The privileged individuals should start mentoring programmes in public schools.
Late Senator Edward Kennedy who spent 47 years in the senate of the United States made it a point of duty to read to students in public schools once a week in his last 20 years on earth. Imagine if half of the 469 members in our National Assembly adopt one public school each and start a mentoring or development programme or project in the schools.
The idea can spread further to the state assemblies where we have over 1000 legislators. Let the senior civil servants, the corporate chiefs and rich businessmen and professionals join the vanguard. We will witness tremendous improvements in our public schools.
I believe it is in the enlightened self interest of the minority elite to ensure that the masses who make use of the public schools have access to quality education comparable to what obtains in the private schools. Otherwise, once the public schools continue to churn out illiterates or semi-literates, then our society will become overwhelmed by the latter group who will later be a menace to the former group. And once in a while nature has a way of playing its tricks on a society where the elite are inconsiderate, selfish and merciless. It will ensure the emergence of a member of the ill-trained masses as leader.
Then, the result is what we had in the Idi Amin and Mobutu cases in Uganda and Zaire. The truants, toughies and armed robbers will come from the rank of people who were denied good education because the public schools have collapsed and they cannot pay for the expensive tuition and other fees in private schools. These set of people will later constitute a menace to the privileged elite and their children.
The contribution of the elite to the uplift of public schools is an indirect way of curing the society of the future danger which may consume us all.
Therefore, I plead that in the New Year, we should all do something to help at least one public school. Those who can still do something in this direction before 2009 year winds down should act now. As for me, I have done my little contribution for this year in the first tertiary institution I attended when the students’ departmental association approached me. Next year, I will visit the secondary school I attended and see what I can do, as God wills.
Before I round off, I want to acknowledge a few people who have contributed something to their alma mater in the last one year and their efforts came to my knowledge. They include Professor Julius Ihonvbere who purchased a power generating set for the secondary school he attended in Benin and also offered to pay the salaries of security men employed by the school; Senator Ganiyu Solomon who renovated a school building and provided exercise books in his old primary school in Mushin, Lagos; Alhaji Isah Abdulrasak who renovated his old school in Lokoja; Mrs Unoyo who sponsors a programme to encourage teachers in charge of various subjects in public schools in Akwa Ibom State and Mr. Demola Aladekomo, Managing Director of Chams Plc who on Tuesday instituted an endowment to ensure that his old school, Oshogbo Grammar School, Osun State, produces 100 science graduates every year for the next 10 years.
There are others who came together under the aegis of their old students associations to help in reviving our public schools. They include members of the old students association of Anglican Grammar School, Igbara-Oke, Ondo State, Kings College Old Boys, Lagos and old students of the Christ the King’s College, Ado Ekiti.
Periodically, I will be publishing names of individuals who have done something for their old schools as a way of encouraging them to do more and getting others to emulate them. You can send a short message on such intervention in our public schools through the email or phone number above. You can also reach me through http://polityonthisday.blogspot.com
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