YOUR association, Baptist High School, Iree Alumni Association has been doing projects to make your Alma Mater better. What new is your association doing for Baptist High School, Iree this time round?
A lot has been done in our school in the last two years. In the last two years, we embarked on the construction of concrete roads in the school. There are six of them and the project cost millions of naira. In the same period, one of our chapters, the Europe Chapter, took up the refurbishment of our school’s dilapidated dining hall. The hall had been abandoned for many years. They refurbished it and we decided to name it after their chapter. So, the hall is now called Europe Hall today. A lot of sets have embarked on many projects some of which we could call commemorative projects. For instance, some of the sets are 30 years, some 40 years and some, 50 years and so on and so forth. Last year, for example, I inaugurated classroom blocks refurbished by the 1983 Set. This year, the 1984 Set is commemorating 40 years of their admission in the school and they furnished the hall with modern executive chairs and they are buying about 200 of such, which costs a lot of money.
Also, this year, we are inaugurating the solar lighting that has been provided for the whole school by the 1975 Set. The project is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that set. A lot is going to happen this year and among them is the commissioning of the concrete road project I spoke about, on February 14th. The Commissioner for Education in Osun State did the inauguration and on Saturday, February 15th, we would unveil those roads and hold a ceremony in which we would honour some of our past and present heroes by naming those roads after them. The families of those to be honoured have been invited to do us the honours of unveiling the roads. Our convention is like a reunion and many of us would come together.
The things done by the chapters, the sets and classes cost the Alumni Association a lot. As the clearing house, if you are to quantify what has been done, how much would you say has been expended?
I will conservatively put the concrete road construction at N55 million. We have a family that financed one of the roads by themselves and it cost them close to N10 million. However, we didn’t just stop at merely constructing the roads, we also did drainages. If we leave the roads without drainage, they would go bad soon enough because our school is in an erosion area. Also, individual sets also have incurred related expenses. For instance, I belong to the 1975 Set and our project cost us about N7 million.
Your association is doing a lot on physical infrastructure. What about projects that are not physical infrastructure like scholarships and others in that regard?
We are also doing a lot in that regard. Like I said, we are in phases; we have the general alumni, we have the chapters and then, the sets. Those are the three levels through which we operate. Our USA Chapter – our members in USA, Canada, North America and so on, paid the WAEC fees of all the final years students in the school. That is not physical infrastructure but it is very significant. In addition, there are lots of individuals that placed students on scholarships. Some individuals who are not our alumni but who are indigenes of Iree also give scholarships. One of them is Professor Lai Adeola. There is also Dr Kajogbol, and many others including Dr Odutolu who has an educational foundation that also gives scholarships. We have so many of our people doing things for the students apart from the physical infrastructure that we have talked about.
How are parents and guardians of students of BHSI reacting to what your association is doing in the school?
They are very appreciative of what we are doing. Even if they may not be giving financial support, they are giving a lot of moral and spiritual support. These are also important, and they are always appreciative of what we are doing.
What about the traditional institution in Iree and other institutions?
We have received tremendous support from the Iree Traditional Council. Before our king was enthroned, the Aree-In-Council gave us a lot of support when we worked on the perimeter fencing of our school about two years ago. The Aree-in-Council gave us a lot of support which helped us tremendously in the successful execution of the project.
We also have the support of religious bodies – the Chief Imam, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Iree. The potential volatility of the project we embarked upon at that time saw them rally behind us to ensure that we have a smooth sail which we did. We are grateful indeed for their support to remove encroachers on the school land.
However, the projects this time round are inside the school and we still have their support. After completing the projects outside the school through their support, we have continued with projects inside the school and these various important institutions are still behind us.
The many things you are doing there must have impacted on enrolment in the school or must have influenced some things. What have you noticed, or what are you hearing in terms of enrolment and such things?
We have noticed a lot of difference in enrolment in the school. Conducive environment is very important to learning and giving the children this kind of conducive environment is impacting so much on the students’ learning. The WAEC and NECO results have been improving and we have been getting such heartwarming reports. Secondly, we have noticed that everybody is struggling to put their children and wards in the school because of the facilities that are there now, and the environment they have seen. The only problem we have noticed is staffing. We do not have enough teachers but the alumni as a body is recruiting teachers whom we would pay. That is one of the ways to solve the problem of poor staffing.
On the issue of teachers, Oyo State government recently employed teachers in primary and secondary schools – about 12,000 in one swoop. Don’t you think the Osun State government should take a leaf from that?
The result from the feelers we put out regarding that says that the Osun State government is also doing the same thing; that they are employing thousands of teachers. I don’t have the specific number but I learnt that what they are doing now is to put finishing touches to the process of employing teachers before deploying them. We hope that when the government is done with this, there would be improvement in the number of subject teachers and in the overall output in our respective schools. We also hope that what we are doing as an alumni association will give the government the impetus to do more for the benefit of our school children.
Funding of education is an open-ended venture and there is always something to do in that regard. As the President of your Alumni Association, what are some of those things the government should immediately take care of as the low-hanging fruits?
The first one has to be employment of teachers in critical areas. I think the government should immediately take care of that. Then the issue of security in the schools and the government should secure the school land and environment in the state. But speaking of Baptist High School, Iree, the Alumni Association is filling that critical gap by providing infrastructure in that school and I must admit that the students of BHSI are fortunate indeed.
Has the government reacted in any way to what you are doing in your Alma Mater?
Yes, they do. Recently, the government of Osun State wrote to us to formally commend and appreciate the Alumni Association. They wrote a formal letter of appreciation through the Office of the Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Education to appreciate what the Alumni of Baptist High School, Iree is doing. It is like a tonic to us. It is a source of encouragement to the Alumni Association and we appreciate it.
I hope there is no jealousy towards BHSI because there must be other schools in the town and they may not be receiving as much attention from their old students as your school is getting?
There are other schools but ours is the first school in Iree. So, it is not anybody’s fault that our school is the first and the people that matter all went to the school. I think there are about four schools in the town now and that is growth in our town. Our school started in 1959 and it has come a long way compared to the others. We are grateful to God and wish the others well too.
Many notable people passed through our school. They have made their names in medicine, accounting, engineering and many other fields of human endeavour except that we do not have many who went into politics. We don’t have many politicians among us and so, their names are not as loud as those of politicians.
Fifty years ago, you were enrolled in the school. That was in 1975. You must have had some seniors you remember as young students in the school?
We have many of them and we call them our ‘Super Seniors’. We are very good friends today with most of our Super Seniors. They are very happy with what we are doing in the school and we thank God that our efforts to make the school better is giving our seniors in the school joy and happiness. They are happy with the vision that we have as an administration and they are also giving so much in terms of support in various ways to our administration.
Your school doesn’t seem to have a big name in sports. What was it like during your time in the school?
It is a mission school and I remember that when we were very young in that school, we were very strong in soccer and athletics. We did well in sectoral sports competitions like the Principals’ Cup Football competition, the IONIAN sports competition and so on. We didn’t get to the finals at the state level but we were always qualifying from our own area. We did our best. Our school, being a Baptist school was also part of a competition for Baptist schools at that time. It involved Baptist High School, Ede; Baptist High School, Ejigbo; Baptist High School, Iree, Olivet Baptist High School and so on. We did things in common. Our school is very popular and we are bring back that past glory.
You are serving out your two terms next year by the grace of God. What would you advise the government and what would you advise your members?
The government should pay more attention to education. They should pay more attention to infrastructural development of schools in the state and after these, they should pay close attention to the development of the minds of the students. These are very important. Most of the schools around us, without alumni associations, they are in a sorry state. The government should pay more attention to education. I wish they would do more to increase budgetary allocation to education in their yearly budget ritual.
For our alumni members, I must say that so far, they have been wonderful. Their financial, moral and other kinds of support have been giving us the courage to carry on. For every project that we put before them, they finance such projects by donating selflessly. That is the spirit that I would want us to continue with after I might have left the office as President. We must continue in the spirit of oneness and togetherness to take our school to greater heights. I want us to grow beyond the level where we are now.
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