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Maria Goretti College old girls restate determination to reposition alma mater

By Ujunwa Atueyi
25 November 2015   |   11:00 pm
St. Maria Goretti Girls’ Grammar School Old Girls Association (SMAGOGA), says it remains unrelenting in its resolve to raise funds to strengthen its scholarship scheme, restore dignity to the institution as well as strategise on how to return the Benin City, Edo State-based college to its original state and owner. The old girls made the…

St. Maria Goretti Girls’ Grammar School Old Girls Association (SMAGOGA), says it remains unrelenting in its resolve to raise funds to strengthen its scholarship scheme, restore dignity to the institution as well as strategise on how to return the Benin City, Edo State-based college to its original state and owner.

The old girls made the resolve at the I6th Annual General Meeting of the association, which had as its theme, “Women Empowerment.” 

National President of the association, Dame Victoria Ekhomu, who said the choice of the theme was influenced by the old girls’ passion for the education of the girl child, regretted that the college has witnessed so much decay over the years since government took over it.
 
Ekhomu, who is also Managing Director, Trans-World Security Limited while summarizing the essence of the AGM said, “The focus of the AGM was to explore ways of restoring the dignity of our alma mater, which all of us enjoyed, and also to raise funds to improve learning facilities and to award scholarship to our girls. We are passionate about girl child education and since most of us are successful in our career, we would ensure that the girl-child receives quality education and good values.”
 
She explained that, “The scholarship scheme is to ensure that those who are from poor background, but intelligent are motivated in their studies. This will make student from St. Maria Goretti to strive for excellence.” 

Another old girl of the institution, Prof Rosemary Egonmwan of the Department of Zoology, University of Lagos, remarked that her achievements in life were as a result of the values she learnt from her alma mater.
 
She said, “We are passionate about girl-child education because when you educate a girl child, you educate the nation. We want to encourage girl-child education and I support the idea. That is not to say that I do not encourage boy-child education because both should be given equal opportunity to excel in life.”
 
On her part, Justice Gladys Olotu of the Federal High Court Abuja, remarked that returning the school to the Catholic mission remains the wisest thing to do “because many things are going wrong in public schools, especially in the area of infrastructure.”

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