Ayodeji Ake reports that the academic excellence awards and medals recently presented to the students of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Ogun State, by international communities and the mouth-watering multi million dollars scholarships awarded by international universities, demonstrate that the foremost school remains a citadel of excellence where the best brains are being groomed
Corona Secondary School (CSS), Agbara, Ogun State, one of the foremost secondary schools in Nigeria, is focused on producing well- rounded and proudly Nigerian young men and women equipped for and leadership. It also has a mission to provide world class education to children, while inculcating high moral and ethical values. The past and present achievements of this great citadel of learning have proven its commitments to building leaders.
Recently, three students of the school bagged the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) awards; three students won the National History Awards (NHA), with one overall winner; and a student bagged Association for International Schools’ award.
The award presentation held on May 10 at the school premises, had in attendance the Principal, Mrs. Chinedum Oluwadamilola, teachers, organisers of the awards and students. In her address, the excited Oluwadamilola noted that the students had made the school proud for their diligence and commitment.
The Principal said: “This is an event where we are celebrating excellence. An excellence that has been validated by international organisations, not the one we say to ourselves ‘we are doing well.’ We have been participating in The National History competition for the past six years and at various levels, we have won. We have been winners at senior and junior categories but this is the first time we are combining both at the national level with one of our students emerging overall winner, by scoring 100 per cent.
“The other awards are AISA. Many international schools belong to this organisation. Every year, AISA would want to reward students across the continent for excellence and we always put in for that competition. For the first time, we won an award for excellence and for the second time we won again.
“COBIS award cuts across various nations of the world. In all countries of the world, you find COBIS school. COBIS award is not just for academic performance but also the impact of the student on their larger community and within the school community. The award is in six categories and each school is expected to put in for only three: nominations and talk about what the students have done with evidence. We went in for three and we won the three.”
Despite the fact that the final students are yet to write their WAEC exams because of the pandemic, the three COBIS winners already have admissions in International universities. They all have admissions in about 15 schools with scholarships already. The scholarships are not based on only their academic performances but also all the different things they do aside from academics. And if we sum the worth of all the scholarships, we have over $2 million worth of scholarships for some of our students.
“What we do in Corona Secondary School is to give them that enabling environment to become the best in whatever they are doing. We don’t only read here, you do all social activities because that is the totality of human being and with that it brings up abilities. Let’s learn to encourage our children to be the best in every way. People that are in the position to make and enforce the laws should give our children the enabling environment .Our children shouldn’t be what we should be playing with and I’m sure they will make us proud if we give them what they need” she said.
In his commendations, Coordinator, National History Competitions, Mr. James Onimisi, said the students of Corona Secondary School “are teachable students with hardworking teachers.”
Onimisi adds: “We are here to celebrate our students in the just concluded history award. The overall student is from Corona Secondary school. With what I have seen, they have good teachers and they have teachable students. As we have seen, the overall best student is not offering history. We are advocating that history should be compulsory for all students. I will wish to encourage other schools to take advantage of this completion because it will help the student to know their history and encourage nation building.”
The History and Sociology Teacher, Mr. Olusanjo Fagbohungbe who supervised the students for the National History Award, applauded them for their hard work and the school for supporting the students at all times.
“Nothing is good as success. We thank God for the enablement and also try our best but it has been a regular thing. For sometime now, we have been taking our students for competitions and we have been winning. What I discovered was that we have willing students here and we are also very available. This balance has really helped us to achieve a lot and we are not stopping here,” Fagbohungbe said.
The Head Prefect, Master Jay Esemudje, who doubles as the recipient of COBIS award and the only student awarded the AISA award in the whole of Africa with over $600,000 worth of scholarship, appreciated the school for her tremendous support: “I received the COBIS award for my contribution to the Wonder School Community. This award is the recognition of students that do things they love. I believe that if you do things you enjoy and impact positively, you are also a good student.
“The AISA awards came as a surprise and it’s an honour to have been picked among the students all over the continent. AISA awards map out Africa and it’s about the tenacity of the students and the passion that we have to develop our community and when I say community, I mean the country at large. It’s an honour to be a recipient and truly I didn’t see this coming, I just kept doing what I know how to do best.”
Another COBIS award recipient, Miss Tamara Akika, in her testimony said life had given her enough and all she wanted to give back, which eventually won her an award: “The award I won was the significant contribution to the African community. I believe I won this award because of my impact on my community and I’m very passionate about helping people and putting smiles on their faces. I have developed a lot of projects which were of significant benefit to the larger society. I also believe that this award is a motivation for people to do the best they can as individuals in his/her community.”
The third COBIS award recipient, Master Kenechukwu Ozoemene, said: “The award was for the outstanding efforts in activities done in my extra-curricular activities and also improving on my grades and the amount of things I have done in the school community. I sincerely didn’t see this coming, I was quite surprised when I saw my name among the recipients of this award. My simple message is that if something you want does not exist, then make it happen.”
The overall winner of the National History Award (NHA) in Nigeria, Miss Oyindoubra Akika, a year ten student, expressed joy. She said preparing for the competition wasn’t that easy as she doesn’t know anything about history but with the help of her teachers she was able to perform better than she expected.
Another recipient of the nha, miss toluwanimi sonuga, a year 11 student said: “I’m excited about the award that was presented, it’s a result of hard work. I almost saw this coming because i felt we would win because my school has been a winner at all times.”
