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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The 1997 set of the old students of St John’s Anglican Grammar School, Ode Lemon, in Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State, has called on the alumni of the school to rally support and save their alma mater from infrastructural decay.
It equally appealed to the Ogun State Government to intervene and help salvage the school from the brink of extinction.
This call was contained in a statement signed by the Secretary, St John’s Anglican Grammar School Old Students’ Association (Class of 1997), Sam Odusolu, and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Odusolu said that though the 1997 set of the school had recently engaged in some interventions in the secondary school, including giving prizes to the best overall students in all the classes to encourage academic excellence, more support was required to restore both physical and academic glory of the school.
According to him, the dilapidated structures in the secondary school needed to be salvaged, while other amenities should also be provided.
He stressed that the old students would be ready to pull resources to save decrepit classrooms, library, science laboratories, administrative office as well as the Corpers’ oodge within the school.
Odusolu, who commended the efforts of various sets of old students of the secondary school for their various contributions to rehabilitating their alma mater, added that efforts must be to preserve the school, which had produced several prominent individuals who have excelled in their respective endeavours.
The statement reads partly: “It’s high time we intentionally let our charity begin from St John’s Anglican Grammar School Ode-Lemo; let’s channel that same energy and resources into our own alma mater too. Let’s invite our friends; call for their support and donations, all for the sake of our own alma mater, which has played a significant role in shaping us into the individuals we are today. It’s high time we gave back to this citadel of learning.
“Many of us have relatives who are currently students of the school. Compare their experiences with yours while you wore the uniform and badge with pride; a visit, either physical or via memory will draw out the deep contrast and the undeniable loud cry for help to salvage and build the dilapidated structures that welcome you to that serene abode of knowledge. A visit and stroll around the school premises is all you need to realize that your alma mater needs your love and attention.
“The Corpers’ lodge you left behind; the once upon a time very active physics/chemistry/biology laboratory is now deserted; the ever busy library that once used to be filled with serious students now turned to a place of comfort for whispering birds and mice, with absolutely no single modern textbook to study. Most disheartening is a block of six classrooms where many of us once had our JSS2 and JSS3 education, teachers and students alike had to abandon it for the sake of their precious lives as a result of falling roofs.”
Odusolu listed renovation of the JSS2 and JSS3 block of six classrooms; renovation and equipping of the school library; renovation of the administrative building; provision of whiteboards and markers for classrooms; recruitment of more teaching staff; construction of a new Corpers’ lodge; construction and equipping of a new laboratory and provision of computers for administrative and library use, as key areas where urgent intervention was needed.
While commending the incumbent administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun, for providing a block of five classrooms to replace the dilapidated JSS2 and JSS3 will not only be unjust and unfair, Odusolu appealed to the state government to facilitate construction of another block of four classrooms in the school.
