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The Imo State Government has backed the Trinity Old Boys Association (TOBA)’s renovation of the state-owned Trinity High School Oguta, saying alumni associations have a great role to play in educational development.
TOBA recently began the renovation of storey buildings in the school including five science laboratories, a computer classroom, a Youth Corpers Lodge, the principal’s office and toilets in the college, among others.
Others included structural integrity tests and reinforcements in the Science and Administrative blocks.
There was also woodwork, roofing, reflooring of electrical wiring, and installation of ceilings, steel doors and windows of the buildings, among others.
Trinity High School was founded in 1951 by the late Hon Chief Philip Udom.
Speaking during the commissioning of the project, Imo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Johncliff Nwadike said educational development requires collective efforts.
He said: “Every person should be a critical stakeholder in the educational sector. The truth is that the government can’t do it alone. TOBA has intervened and shown good examples of giving back to the school that made them what they are today.
“We can’t be in a community and our schools are collapsing and we are keeping quiet. The school belongs to us and we should try as much as possible to do the little we can. When one roof goes off and we are watching it, waiting for the government to come, even when the government was unaware a roof was blown off, the whole thing will deteriorate.
“Communities should be partners in progress. Please, if something is happening intervene, but when the intervention is beyond your capacity, there is a need to report and inform the appropriate authorities. Government can’t be everywhere, but when you report, something will be done.”
President of TOBA Worldwide, who undertook the renovation project, Godwin Achunine, explained how things rapidly began to change in the school and other schools taken over by the government after the Nigerian civil war.
“The character and names of most schools taken over by the government changed. Standards fell. Dilapidation of buildings, lack of qualified teachers and ill-equipped laboratories became the order of the day.”
Recounting the state of the school when the old boys gathered together to renovate it, Achunine said that the school up to 2016 was in a sorry state of neglect and dilapidation until TOBA intervened.
“A worldwide reunion of Trinity old boys took place at the school assembly ground on the 30th of December 2016. Our old boys wept at the sorry sight of their alma mater. We didn’t want to see the school that produced us go out of existence and into oblivion. We resolved that day to embark on sacrificial contribution towards the renovation,” he said.
