St. Anthony old students renovate classrooms

St. Anthony Secondary School Ilorin Old Students Association (SASSIOSA), Kwara state have renovated and commissioned two blocks of four classrooms and office spaces as a way of giving back to their alma mater.

The two renovated blocks of classrooms belong to the Junior and Senior classes each.

Speaking during the event at the school premises, Offa road, Ilorin on Friday, the Head Girl and president of the set, Chief Mrs. Victoria Kehinde Afolayan (nee Oyeyipo), said that the event was to mark for 40th year anniversary of leaving the school.

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The president of the association, who said that over N6.1 million was spent for the total renovation project, added that the resources expended were gathered among members of the set of the old students.

“You know fingers are not equal. Various sums of money were put together, and some donated labour.

“The two blocks of classrooms were in bad shape and next to nothing, especially that of the junior class.

“Teachers and students had suffered injuries from big holes on the floors, while teachers were afraid to teach in the class due to bad state it was.

“So, we did terrazzo flooring of the classrooms and outside of the classrooms, wall plastering, replacement of doors and windows from louvers to metal ones and repairs of the ceilings”, she said.

Mrs. Afolayan also said that members of the old students include medical doctors, nurses, lecturers, civil servants, traditional ruler, politicians, among other professionals.

The president 1984 set also said that activities to mark the celebration include award presentation, such as recognition to the Catholic Church for establishing the school, which she added “nurtured us to what we are today.

“We gave award to the Chaplain of the school, Reverend Father Ralph Ajewole, for the spiritual aspects of our study and we also had a get-together.

“At the school today, we recognized our teachers and principals in the past 45 years, starting from when we began our studies here, using the sitting principals as form of contacts for them.

“We gave them awards of torchbearers for upholding the excellence of the school.

“The hallmark of our 40th anniversary is another round of award presentation to honour and recognize two sets of people.

“The first head boy and first head girl.

“They are the ones that gave us leadership then and they would receive leadership excellence awards.

“The second set of people are the first two people; the boy and girl, that first registered their names in school. These are the Abayomi twins of 001 and 002 registration numbers.

Performing the commissioning, the Catholic Bishop of Ilorin diocese, Most Reverend Anselm Pendo Lawani, who was represented by the dean of Ilorin Deanary, Reverend Father Titus Opadokun, prayed for members of the old students for remembering their school.

The Bishop also told the students present during the event to take the commissioning as a challenge on what they should aim to become for them to also do same in their time.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE