Nothing in life is permanent. Everything, including human beings, has expiry date. Death is the ultimate evil which everyone detests. It comes unannounced. Its mode of operation is complex because no one possesses the ability to predict its time, location and nature. We have been anaesthetised into accepting faith when it comes.
Though Ms Laja has joined her ancestors, her presence is much felt in our midst. She left a legacy that immortalises her. She was a role model to many private school owners because she set a precedent for others in a school business to follow.
PROFILE:
Ms Abiodun Laja, the executive director and proprietress of Lekki British School, Lagos State, had her primary and secondary education in Nigeria. After that, she proceeded to England to obtain two diplomas in education at St Nicholas Montessori Knightsbridge, London. Upon her return to Nigeria, she took up employment at the top school, Adrao International School, Victoria Island Lagos. She felt unfulfilled because the school did not run a British curriculum. She therefore moved to St. Saviours School, a school running a British curriculum, to continue her teaching profession.
With her vast experience coupled with her powerful pedagogic skills at a very young age, Ms Laja founded her own school named ABC Nursery Land. She started off with one school and within three years, she had expanded her school to four branches at different locations in Lagos.
Ms Laja was highly committed and she was so much concerned about her students’ excellent academic achievement. She properly monitored and supported the overall progress of student’s performance in relation to targets set for each student. She also had profound experience in Behaviour Management Systems. She differentiated learning and devised support mechanisms to teach and engage students according to their educational needs.
To Ms Abiodun Laja, education was her passion especially the British Curriculum in which she was trained. After running her school for 25 years, she took a bigger challenge to own a secondary school at the highbrow area of Lagos State. Her vision was to stop Nigerians from going abroad at an early age to school as they might lose their culture which a lot of parents were not too happy about.
In the beautiful estate of Lekki Penninsula, the school site is the biggest, and this gave birth to LEKKI BRITISH SCHOOL. The Primary and Pre-School known as the Junior School kicked off two years after. The results of the IGCSE over the years have been outstanding.
Ms Abiodun Laja was a devout Christian and is survived by two grown up sons with wonderful grandchildren.
