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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Secretary General, Barewa College Old Boys Association (BOBA), Haroun Audu, has narrated how members of BOBA revived academic excellence in College through the help of the Kaduna State Government, individuals and corporate organizations.
Audu told journalists at a meeting, in Abuja, recently that BOBA members became worried and concerned that Barewa College, hitherto known for academic excellence, discipline and prosperity was speedily loosing its glory due to unknown reason.
He said: “In the 80s, Barewa College was known to be top as regards academic excellence, and superb performance in local and regional examinations. Suddenly, the records dropped significantly from 90s through to year 2000s. It became worst in the last 10 years, hence the decision of BOBA leadership to plead with Kaduna State Governments to allow us intervene, and the government agreed.
“Part of the decision and steps taken was to re-examine and re-evaluate the quality of teachers and other academic work in the school. At the end of the re-evaluation exercise, we got an unpleasant outcome. We realized that many of the teachers need training to upgrade their knowledge and skills.
“We shockingly discovered that some students in the school are far better than some teachers in terms of knowledge and skills. We, then approached and got the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, to intervene, and they agreed. We took all the teachers to NTI and pay millions of Naira for them to get retrained.
“It took NTI a year and half to retrain these teachers, and since then, academic sanity returned to Barewa College. Some donor agencies supported us by donating laptop to every teacher in the College, and the teachers were better for it. We can see the gains today.
“We can see and feel the changes in the outcome of examinations, local and regional, and other academic performances of the students.”
He said the leaders of BOBA took the decision to pay back to the school because the College contributed greatly to whatever they are today, and there’s need for people coming behind to enjoy such privilege.
“There’s no single BOBA member that will confidently and boldly say the College did not impact him in one way or the other. With the history of the school and the caliber of people it has produced, five Presidents of Nigeria, several governors and captains of industry, graduated from Barewa College, every single person want to be associated with the school.
“The College marked its 100 years old last year, and it was celebrated in such a way that every member sees the need to help the school. We need to mobilize current generations to understand the need for giving back. Many people are making money and don’t understand the importance of giving back.”
As Secretary General, Audu vowed to work with other executive members to bridge the generational gap existing in BOBA, observing that many of the young people who have passed through Barewa College have a mistaken notion that, because of the history of the college, they would have everything ready-made for them.
“They, often, expressed the sentiment that we don’t give them jobs, neither do we support their businesses. We understand that perfectly well, and we working to correct that. All we ask is more investment in BOBA so that we would have the capacity to help the younger ones even though many of them are lacking in necessary skills and competencies needed for 21st century relevance.
“Many of them come out of schools with degrees in different programmes, but lack what’s required to defend themselves. In this case, Alma mata has important role to play in contributing to their former schools. Barewa College has enjoyed such interventions from our parents and older brothers who passed through Barewa College.”
