Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, has stressed the significance of collaboration among all stakeholders to reform secondary school education in the country.
He said efforts should be put into ensuring that graduates are equipped with relevant skills to meet modern day needs and challenges.
Speaking during a Fundraising and Award ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, Hamzat, who was the guest speaker, observed that the nation’s education system does not meet societal challenges it is meant to solve.
While noting that no country can ever hope to rise beyond the quality of its education system, he described secondary education as the cornerstone and training ground of leadership and “the phase where a sense of responsibility is introduced and entrenched”.
The Lagos State deputy governor, who is an alumnus of the school, identified major challenges to ensuring a future-focused secondary education system to include outdated curricular, infrastructure decay and collapse of established cultures, values and ethics of the olden days.
“We need to rethink, reinvest and re-imagine secondary education, as this must be the new chamber of leadership formation and innovation lab to foster environmental and entrepreneurial mindsets to lead Nigeria’s renaissance,” he said.
He identified the essence of the Olivet Baptist High School’s 80th anniversary celebrations to be its generational impact as seen in the multidimensional contributions of its products to national socio-economic development.
“As we celebrate Olivet’s 80-year legacy, we must recognise that its greatest achievement is not in the number of students it has produced, but in the quality of leadership, service, and societal transformation those graduates have delivered.
“From public service to private enterprise, from diplomacy to academia, the Olivet alumni community continues to be a constellation of stars illuminating Nigeria’s path to greatness. Let this anniversary, therefore, be a clarion call to reinvest in our legacy, reignite the Olivet spirit, and ensure that the next 80 years birth an even more illustrious generation of leaders”, he said.
President of the Olivet Baptist High School National Old Students Associations, Dr Wale Okediran, said the school has, over the years, carved a unique niche as an epitome of excellence in academics, sports and humanity.
He said in the last 80 years, the school has come to be known as a veritable reference point for inter-school academic competitions /projects as well as sports in Nigeria.
Chairman of the Anniversary Central Planning Committee, Dr Olusegun Ahmadu, appealed to the Oyo State governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, to revive the boarding house in the state’s education system.
