Blessing Abah
Top officials of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Ogun State have urged school authorities across Nigeria to seize the opportunity of spending greater hours with their various students to complement the missing values of their lives.
The school’s Vice Principal, Pastoral, Mr. Paul Obah, made the call during Corona’s 23rd annual inter house sports competition held on the school’s campus in Agbara recently
At the well-attended forum, he said: “It is the business of the school to educate the society. The impact a school has on a child is much because the student stays in the boarding school for three months, goes for few weeks holiday and comes back for another three months’ learning.
“Invariably, the student spends complete nine months of the three terms in the school. The student only spends three months in a year with the parents”, Obah added.
According to him, the teacher is expected to continue with the child from where the parents stopped at home. “What the school should do is to build on what the home has done,” he said.
Painting a scenario of how a day student wakes up in the morning, dresses and go to school at 8 am to return home at 4pm and proceed for lesson from 4 to 6pm without time for sporting activities, he maintained that it’s the business of the school to ensure that what the curriculum provided is not just reading and writing, but sport should be inclusive.
“Education should not be English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology alone; education also has to do with values, talents and sports. The home cannot do it all. Most times, it’s what the school is able to do in the life of the child that sustains him.
“You cannot blame the parents who want the child to make A1 parallel; it’s the school that should bring the balance. The student can finish with A1 or first class and be unable to fit into anywhere in the society. With his first class degree, yet, he doesn’t have good relationship with others, lacks empathy and has no good contribution to the society.
“A child may have a first class degree and not be able to relate with people, because the child has no knowledge of what is happening around him”, he added.
Obah, who noted that sport was key to learning, disclosed that with the march past by participants, teachers present were able to have a little understanding of what the Chinese culture was all about, and what the Yoruba, Edo and Hausa do in marriage.
He said: “Our mid-term started today and parents are not rushing to leave because increasingly we are getting to the level where we are able to achieve this healthy competition among students. It is fun and also a sport day. I tell people that winning is not everything, we have fun and winning is a bonus.”
Meanwhile, at the inter house sports event where nine students from other schools in Lagos and Ogun competed, Crane House came first with 43 gold medals, 20 silver and 21 bronze medals.
This was just as King Fisher House, which emerged second, had 32 gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze medals. The third position went for Heron House with 24 gold, 33 silver, and 30 bronze medals.
