‘At OIS, we are nurturing students to their full potential, raising leaders’

SPREAD over a massive 60 hectares of land in the rustic and serene Iloko-Ijesa village in Osun State, Olashore International School (OIS) could pass for a well-appointed private school in Europe, America or any part of the globe at that.

  Venturing deeper into the facility reveals well-manicured lush green lawns, a highly stocked library, well-equipped laboratories, a highly motivated workforce, spacious and comfortable classrooms, very clean living quarters for both staff and students, a full-fledged clinic and all the appurtenances of a 21st Century boarding school, which takes serious, the task of engraving knowledge on young minds.

  A walk round the complex during a recent facility tour at the behest of the institution, strengthens the fact that the school is not only out for academic excellence, as illustrated by splendid results it carded in external examinations in the last three years, it is also host of some of the best sporting facilities in the state.

  At a glance, the efforts put in place by managers of the school in its 20 years of existence, goes a long way in buttressing the compelling need for governments at all levels to partner the private sector in the gargantuan task of educating Nigerian youths, as the private sector remains a key component of the education sector anywhere in the world. 

 Working with a combination of Nigerian and British curricula, the school says it strives real hard to provide its students with the best quality education available in the country, while also exposing them to the perfect blend of Nigerian local culture with, an international flavour. 

  According to principal of the school, Mr. Dereck Smith, efforts at executing the school’s cardinal objective, have paid off handsomely and could be gleaned from the results of both the internal and external examinations written by its students. 

  He summarised thus: “Olashore International School recorded 100 pass rate in the last three years in the West African Examination Council (WAEC)–organised West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). In 2014 specifically, 83 per cent of the grades were in A’s or B’s. We recorded 100 per cent A’s or B’s in mathematics; 99 per cent A1 in computer science and 90 per cent A1 pass in newly introduced civic education.” 

  “In achieving this wonderful results, we do a series of things and are always making the environment very competitive for the students, from the foundational stages. We continuously conduct assessment tests for them. At the end of the assessments, the top students are awarded prizes. This, however, drives the students to forge ahead in their academics. Having been around for 20 years, most of our students have attended top universities in the UK, US and Nigeria, and they become successful. 

 He informed further, “We also have a foundational programme here in Nigeria, after which students get direct entry into Lancaster University. Our admission process is quite strict because it is directed by Lancaster University. The programme is also opened to other students from other schools, but an entrance examination is required.”

  For the teachers he said, “We have continual training both in Nigeria and other places for our teachers, and they are always updating their skills in different areas because they need to know the international best practices and uphold same firmly. We run staff trainings for three days before resumption dates so as to know some of the innovations and changes in the system. In addition to this, the teachers travel to select universities in the UK, where we have linkages, spend some days with the schools and get acquainted with international best practices that would aid their job back home,” the principal stated.    

   “At OIS, we are nurturing students to their full potentials and raising leaders. Our culture is to drive students to be the best they can be, do well academically and nurture their skills,” Smith said adding that four students of the schools passed the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), with flying colours having recorded straight A’s in the examination. 

   “In nurturing students to full their full potentials, we try to figure out their areas of strength and weaknesses through our programmes because education has moved beyond packing large crowds of students in one classroom. It requires individual coaching too, from which we get reports of about students. We are not just restricting students to academics, we also have other opportunities for them.” 

  Apart from the IGCSE, an academically rigorous, internationally used, and specialised English language curriculum, which is offered to students to prepare them for International Baccalaureate, A Level and Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) Level 3 (which is recommended for higher tier students), the school’s international pedigree is further boosted by the other international examinations, which its students write and excel in. They include the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which is the world’s most popular high stakes English language test, and a test, which opens doors to a world of academic and professional opportunities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.   

  Further to this, Smith said the student’s horizon is further expanded through activities like international leadership excursions; close links with international tertiary institutions (including Lancaster University, Bradford University College) and students’ progressing to international institutions across the globe.

  Bent on strengthening its students’ capacity and brightening their chances of being active players on international educational platforms like their peers from other parts of the world, the school is introducing the GL Assessment across board. “The GL Assessment is an internationally recognised series of standardised tests that measures progress, ability, potential and attitudes that will allow the school to fulfill its mission statement commitment to ensuring each child is nurtured to their full potential,” Smith said.

  He added that the OIS has also “reviewed IGCSE structure to further improve its outstanding results. Students will be able to sit IGCSE examinations earlier in Year 12, thereby allowing them to fully demonstrate their abilities in both national and international examinations.

  “The extended parent cocktail programme reaching more cities in Nigeria and internationally,” the principal said, “allows parents greater access to the principal and the chairman of Board of Governors to ensure that the development of their children is truly a partnership. Linking the school to the fibre optic network being rolled out across the country allows it to significantly increase the Internet bandwidth available in school. This will allow the school to extend and enhance the use of technology in learning across the school, thereby providing access to a wide range of interactive teaching resources.”

 Olashore International School does not toy with the idea of promoting the local Nigerian culture. In fact, in a variety of ways, it helps in propagating this. Smith recalls some of the ways. “Students in the school prepare a high quality Nigerian drama production each year. We link up with the playwright to ensure that the play is appropriately developed for school-age children. This play is then performed for primary school children across the country. Each term, the school holds “OIS Goes Traditional,” where students are encouraged to explore the different cultures of Nigeria. In addition to this, all public programmes include cultural dances and choirs based on different cultures around Nigeria.

  Even though the school does not teach Nigerian history specifically, it is, “however, committed to the national curriculum subjects of national values and civic education. This allows students to explore the history and culture of Nigeria while also considering their role in civil society. In the 2014 examination where Civic Education was presented for the first time at WASSCE 90 per cent of Olashore students achieved the highest grade of A1,” Smith informed.

  Founded in 1994 by Oba Oladele Olashore (CON), to compete with its counterparts from around the world in the provision of international standard education, the school, is also taking the issue of leadership training for its students seriously. 

  Since inception, students have been given the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their leadership skills in line with the school’s avowed commitment to nurture each child to their full potentials, by developing targets for them, both in academics and extra-curricular activities. These include targets for each subject, targets in sports, music and drama etc so that the whole child is developed.”

  Smith, who is also chief executive officer of the school, stressed the need for the Federal Government to work with the private sector as it strives to educate the Nigerian populace, as in the practice in other climes. 

  “I have worked in West Africa and in the United Kingdom and the government is having to link with the private sector to build the education system. Good education is very possible in Nigeria at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.” 

  Asked to compare education in Nigeria to the United Kingdom, he said, “Education in the UK is one thing and education in Nigeria is another thing. A significant number of schools I have taught in the UK are significantly worse than a large number of schools in Nigeria in terms of performance, behaviour, opportunities and facilities. Everything is not perfect anywhere. The top schools in Nigeria have results that are comparable with the average school in the UK. There are a lot of schools that are doing significantly worse than we are in the UK examinations. Everything is not rosy in the UK and a number of teachers want to leave teaching ob there. 

  He continued, “We have good schools in Nigeria and schools that are not really good as well. The same goes with UK schools. The significant challenge in UK education is government’s interference and I think there is less government interference in education in Nigeria. My view is that you look at places where things have been done well and you take what they are doing well and integrate them. Copying the UK model of education will not be the solution to Nigeria’s education problems because there are a lot of problems with the UK education.”

  Smith informed that the school makes conscious efforts of making future leaders out of the students. “Developing leaders is what makes us stand out. To us, it is not about talking leadership, it is about making leadership. In all of our events, you don’t see teachers introducing the guest speakers and other dignitaries. It is our students that do that for us. We provide the opportunity for them to start doing those things leaders do. We are always marvelled at the way, these students learn very fast. Leaders are made not just born and academics and leadership is our watchword, we take it to the highest level.”

   Chairman, Board of Governors of the school, Bimbo Olashore, is particularly appalled by what he described as leadership deficit in the country. That, he says explains the reason the school takes its leadership-training programme seriously.  

  “There is a leadership deficit in the country, which as a school we must take it on as a specific area that must be developed. We love to think that all we do here is not all about education; we deal with developing a total child. We are now dealing with softer issues like how to develop each child in such a way that they can cope in the world out there.”

  He said, “In setting up a school, the first thing is that you have to be very clear in your mind what you are trying to achieve. You must have the vision of where you want to see the school in the next five years. You then need to think of people around you who can help you accomplish the school’s vision. I believe that whatever leadership lays emphasis on, everybody follows. We are a school that takes discipline very seriously. We are also a school that believes in rules, and we are not that flexible in the application of our rules.

  Asked to proffer way through which the government can address some of the niggling problems in the education sector, he said, “As a country we are over experimenting. Governments at all levels have really not defined what they want our education to deliver. It’s okay for government to say it wants everybody to go to school. Unfortunately, the issue has got to a stage where the emphasis is now on paper qualification. That makes everybody believe that if you don’t have a first degree or a master’s degree, then you are not okay. This drive has pushed the country to have lot of graduates with degrees that are worthless.

  “In the world to come, vocation studies would be more useful than the paper qualification that we are embracing currently. In the Nigeria to come, the people we need are people who are much more entrepreneurial, people that can do things on their own rather than people that are looking for paid employment. The world is changing rapidly, are we sure our education can deliver the kind of training that will match global best practices?

  “It is really from secondary school that we need to start inculcating this entrepreneurial aspect of education in our children. The Nigeria of the future is not going to provide many jobs for paid employment, but we just cannot see it. Unfortunately our leaders are still lying to us. Because of the neglect of technical schools, the Nigeria youth population has been de-skilled in several areas. For now education in Nigeria is lip service because we are not seeing the investment and as a country, we are not even defining what education ought to deliver to us as a country.