Reverend Father Peter Onabamiro, former rector of the St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary, Oke Are, Ibadan, Oyo State, is the shepherd over Christ The King Catholic College (CKCC), Odolewu, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. In this interview, the priest spoke to MODUPE GEORGE about his new role as the principal of the college; its strength and achievements over the past two decades.
What triggered your passion for teaching, being a priest?
Personally, it is the love for children. I love teaching; I see it as a vocation and a call to mould lives to make them better for the future generation. After my secondary education at St. Theresa Minor Seminary in Ibadan, I did my first degree in Philosophy at Ss Peter and Paul Major Seminary in affiliation with the University of Ibadan and had my Masters degree in Educational Psychology in the same university. I also had a Bachelor in Theology (B.Th.) from Urban University in Rome before I finally got posted to St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary after my ordination. I hope to proceed for my PhD in due course.
Compared to raising young priests at the minor seminary, what does it feel like to be charting the course of CKCC, a male-child college?
I see it as an opportunity to also contribute my quota. I’m the fourth principal of this college. Dr Kola Onasanya was the first principal of the college, followed by Rev Fr Emmanuel Matuluko, and Rev Fr Patrick Balogun. I assumed office on February 14, 2018 as the fourth principal of the college. The new assignment has been a little challenging in the sense that where I am coming from, we do not have as large as the kind of population compared to what we are having at CKCC. On the other hand, it’s been very easy. Here, we have enough workers in different sectors of the college, who are managing them and giving the feedbacks to the person who is at the helm of affairs. The structure is really better than where I came from.
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Tell us about the critical role the CKCC is playing in moulding the lives of these young men?
First and foremost, the mission of CKCC is to provide a unique academic, moral, social and spiritual secondary school experience that focuses on the holistic formation of the boy-child premised on catholic values in pursuit of a purposeful life, while the vision is to raise young men of competence and integrity. Part of the roles we play as an institution is to ensure that apart from the education we are giving to the children, they are also gaining some moral values. It’s not just about the classroom and the intellectual ability, but being able to translate what you have been taught in the classroom to your everyday way of life. Our curriculum is not just related to that of the state alone. Apart from the normal values it states that we should teach them, we also have some teachings of the church that we place before them to make them become great in life. For instance, the way the society defines corruption may not be deep enough in comparison to the way the church defines it. They may look at corruption outside there as it is only when you take money that does not belong to you and spend. Corruption is more than that! You doing not what you are supposed to do ordinarily within the society where you find yourself could be an act corruption. For instance, going past a piece of paper on the floor in the school as if it’s a normal thing to do in the society shows you are not contributing in any way to making the society or community better. Aside from that, the way examination malpractices are viewed outside there is not the same with what we teach our students. To us at CKCC, even, you stretching your neck to look at another person’s paper during an examination is an act of cheating; it’s not until you carry an extra body into an examination hall. Here, we have zero tolerance for such kind of act. Anybody caught involved in such, it’s automatic expulsion. In our brochure we have what we call soft and hard examination malpractices; copying another person’s work, which is soft, is also punishable according to our own law here. What about other moral value as regards your relationship with your mates? Since it’s a boys-only school, we don’t tolerate homosexuality here. The punishment for it is immediate expulsion. Even bullying, we do not tolerate. We call any student who may want to deviate from the rules and regulations of the school to order and commend those who have been found worthy in character and academic excellence, even our teachers.
Tell us more about the uniqueness of CKCC?
CKCC is a full boarding school for boys only, founded by Most Rev Dr Albert Ayinde Fasina. By September 8 this year, we will be clocking 24 years as a college. The college has been pulling her weight from inception till date. We have really excelled in different areas of life that you can imagine. The college is not only being attended by Nigerian children. We have had and still having many who come from outside the country such as the UK, USA and other countries. CKCC as a college apart from the training of the students that we do, we also contribute to the lives of the people in the community by giving scholarships to indigent students in the neighbourhood and we also give free medical treatment to people in not less than 20 communities around the college.
Tell us about the performances of your students in general external examinations?
The performances of our students have been so wonderful; so many of them after finishing here gain scholarships to study in different universities abroad. We take SAT examination to allow students who will like to study in US and Canada, while we hope to look into the Cambridge examination in the nearest future. Since 2010, the college has continued to record 100 per cent pass in almost all subjects in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) May/June till date and we hope to continue. The college produced Awe Oluwasanya Oluwafemi as the best male candidate in Nigeria at the 2012, and 2016, Okorigba Sydney Dean at the WASSCE and the best school in the same examination in 2017.
Is the college not affected by the rate of mass failure in Mathematics and English Language in the country?
Those two subjects are not part of what we fear at CKCC; we have very good teachers handling the students. Even students who were not good from their primary school whom we managed to give admission are brushed up to meet up with the standard. Part of the magic is this; we make sure that all our teachers participate in the coordination of external examinations and marking. Since they participate in the process, they know what is expected of the students and when they get to the classrooms, they do not joke with what to teach them. For instance, presently, we promote the students based on 65 per cent in each of the subjects. 3.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) was what was being used, but we are raising it, especially for the penultimate class to the examination, that is the JSSS 2 class going to JSS 3 and the SSS2 class going to SSS3, so that the result we are getting at the end of the day will be better than what it used to be, even though what they were getting before was also good. For those who are not able to meet up with standard we have extra coaching for them, which is done outside the four walls of normal classroom that they know, so that at the end of the day they can meet up with the standards of their mates and even surpass it. For some of them it is a foundational problem they are having, so we start with them form the scratch. We also use the CGPA for students in which all the subjects are weighted according to number of periods they have taken per week, and students are encouraged to take all subjects seriously and average score in each subject for the three terms determines who is promoted at the end of the session. Failure in two core subjects will make a student repeat a class and pay half tuition for the class he is repeating. Part of what encourages our teachers to be at their best is that we allow them to go for further studies with proper arrangement with the college
Has CKCC won unique awards/prizes over the years?
The college represented Nigeria in Holland and United Kingdom for the world Mathematics Olympiads and won bronze medal in 2011. It continued its run of excellence by representing Nigeria in Argentina 2012 World Olympiads after winning several Gold medals in the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) and Olympiads in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. The performance at this competition by the college representatives ranked Nigeria among the best first three international nations of the world. And for emerging the best school in WASSCE in 2017 we got other special awards and gifts from different groups. The Ministry of Science and Technology gave us Science kits; Hallmarks of Labour Foundation gave us of eight brand new computer system for our laboratory. Our students have also excelled in Microsoft examinations and so many other awards were won for being the best in sports, debate, Rubik’s cube competitions. Last year our students participated in the international robotic competition and emerged the sixth overall in the whole world and first in Africa.
What is the alumni base of the school like in last two decades?
It is a very strong one headed by Mr Grants Onoka. The alumni association does the yearly induction of new members during each valedictory service; they hold their meeting on class/set basis and they have representatives in the larger group, who represent them from time to time. Out of the 24 years, if we remove the first six years, we will say the college has produced at least 17 sets.
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