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Old students seek return of mission schools to owners

By Kehinde Olatunji
02 December 2021   |   3:25 am
President, Saint John’s Grammar School Old Boys Association, Oke atan, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dr. Festus Osogba, has restated call for the return of mission schools to original owners, saying it is evident government cannot manage them well.

Oyetola, Ooni of Ife to attend Saint John’s 60th anniversary
President, Saint John’s Grammar School Old Boys Association, Oke atan, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dr. Festus Osogba, has restated call for the return of mission schools to original owners, saying it is evident government cannot manage them well.
  
He lamented that most of the schools taken over by government are now dilapidated and unkempt, save for the intervention of old students.
  
Speaking with The Guardian on the school’s planned 60th founder’s day billed to hold in January 2022, Osogba highlighted activities lined up for the event as academic activities for students, literary and debating competition among schools in Ile-Ife, sporting activities as well as mentoring and lectures.
  


He said dignitaries, including Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, among others, would attend the event.

He said: “The trend you will notice all over the country is that old students are giving back to schools. In October last year, we commissioned projects worth over N50 million for infrastructural development.  Towards this 60th anniversary we have also embarked on projects to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure, as the school’s science laboratory needs urgent attention.
  
“We are also providing transformers to ensure that there is electricity, we are providing computers for students and appealing to government to send more teachers to the school so as to aid educational development. By all these, we are following the footsteps of our founder, Rev. Father Fegan Crote, who came from Canada to Nigeria to develop boys that have met landmark achievements all over the world.”
  
He urged government to make education a priority in the budget, saying when the sector is given more attention; there would be a reduction in crimes and other vices.
  
“Most of our budgets should be spent on education and by the time we do that, we will have little or no expenditure on crime. The menace of out-of-school children is what is producing terrorism and banditry that the country is battling. It was a time bomb waiting to happen; if you noticed, in the south west and southern states where education is taken more seriously, it is less of a problem. We can still curb it through human capital development,” Osogba added.

 

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