Foundation rewards Birch Freeman students with awards for excellence

Goddy Jidenma Foundation, a non-profit and non-governmental organisation dedicated to the promotion of education in Nigeria, recently awarded Prizes for Excellence to the two students who made the best results in Birch Freeman High School, Surulere Lagos, in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). The presentation event took place on December 14, 2017 at the school assembly ground.

Goddy Jidenma Foundation was founded in 2007 to promote the ideals and passions of Arc Goddy Jidenma who died in 2006 in Lagos. The foundation has instituted prizes of excellence and public speaking in several schools across the country such as Loyola Jesuit College Abuja, Nnamdi Azikiwe Secondary School, Abagana, Anambra State, Pacelli School for the Blind Lagos and Birch Freeman School High School, Lagos. The prize for excellence is awarded to the best student in WASSCE and the award comes with a monetary reward to motivate the students.

Birch Freeman, a former Methodist missionary school, is a boys’ school with a rich history. Its mission is to provide sound education based on good and purposeful thinking, delivered by well- trained and highly motivated staff with “hard-work and dedication to duty by all stakeholders in a disciplined environment.

The Arc Goddy Jidenma Prize for Excellence was first instituted in the school in November 2014 to further encourage the students to work hard and strive for excellence in their studies. Master Bakare Mubarak Oluwatosin, who emerged the best student in the school’s 2014 WASSCE, won the inaugural award.

In its recent presentation, the foundation rewarded Master Okeowo Yusuf Abayomi and Master Adeniyi Ismail Olayekeen who came out the best students in the school in the 2015 and 2016 WASSCE, respectively.

Addressing the students and teachers at the assembly ground, the school principal, Mrs Oluwakemi Oke, expressed her gratitude to the foundation for choosing and retaining Birch Freeman Senior High School as a beneficiary of such prize. She also prayed that the Foundation would continue to grow from strength to strength as it gears towards the achievement of its goals and objectives.

She encouraged the students to strive for excellence and greatness through hard work and determination. She also advised students to put more efforts in their studies so that they can perform better in the next WASSCE.

The parent of the winner of the 2016 prize, Mrs Adeniyi, also expressed her immense appreciation to the foundation for establishing such a kind programme.