Chairman, Ibadan Grammar School Old Students’ Association (IGSOSA), Lagos branch, Mr Hakeem Suara, has decried the level of decadence in the public education system, urging the government to return the public schools back to their original owners.
Mr Suara stated this while speaking to journalists at the opening of the maiden Spelling Bee Competition, organised for the students of Ibadan Grammar School, (IGS) Molete, Ibadan, in commemoration of the celebration of the 70th birthday of a distinguished old student of the 1965\69 class, Mr Jide Ogungbadero.
According to him, the Spelling Bee competition, which was the first of its kind in the school, was sponsored by Mr Ogungbadero, who clocked 70 on October 31, but chose to celebrate his birthday in a unique way by reaching out to his alma mater and the current students of the school against the usual practice of throwing series of parties.
Suara said further: “Mr Jide Ogungbadero is passionate about children. He has been sponsoring students in Boston, Massachusetts, the US where he lives.”
He is quite passionate about the progress of Ibadan Grammar School in particular, which is the reason why he has been sponsoring them for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
“His next agenda is to continue with the programme including the ultimate objective of giving university scholarships to successful candidates from the selected group.
“He is always concerned about the rate of poverty, political instability, insecurity and the likes ravaging the nation. And having passed through the school, he is always thinking about the students and how they are surviving.
“He got to know that some of them could not afford to pay for their external examinations and he took it upon himself to be sponsoring them.”
He said that the reason for going for the idea of a Spelling Bee competition was to encourage reading culture among the students.
“There is no way a student will participate in a spelling competition and he/she will not improve on his/her vocabulary and spoken English,” he noted.
He hinted that the Spelling Bee competition has come to stay in the school as an annual event.
He called on other well-to-do old members of the school and citizens in the nation to take cues from what Mr Ogungbade is doing, by giving back to their alma maters or impacting their immediate environment and blessing their family members.
In their separate remarks, the principals of the school, Mr Johnson O. Oladejo (senior school) and Pastor Oluyemi A. Akinpelu (junior school) both congratulated the celebrant and thanked him for his kind gesture by putting up such a capital-intensive programme for the school.
They said the programme was not just productive in terms of academics but had also challenged the students to buckled-up with the hope that they can also become great people in life.
At the end of the competition, which had representatives from both the senior and junior schools; Oluwaseyi Oluwasanmi emerged the overall winner in the senior category and Olajumoke Olaoye in the junior category. They both won the trophies and were awarded with cash gifts.
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