OLD BOYS AND GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY

Adamu Adamu urges all to ensure that public schools do not die

It is a thing of joy to be associated with your noble quest of giving back to the society and your Alma Mater through the Old Boys’ Association platform. Government College Ughelli belongs to a special category of elite schools that over the years produced eminent Nigerians who have made their mark in all spheres of human endeavour and contributed their quota to the development of the country. Your efforts to reposition the college to the status befiting it is worthy of emulation.

I was in Ughelli 1972 and my guide was one Harrison Garuba and I could remember we spent the better part of two days discussing religion. He was a nice boy and I hoped I looked that way to him too. I made one promise to him, which I am yet to fulfil. I don’t know if he could remember it now. When last I asked about him, someone told me he was in South Africa. I don’t know if he is present here today. If he is, I will be happy to renew acquaintance. If he is not I hope someone here will tell him I am trying to connect. I came to Ughelli in 1972 as part of a North-East-Midwest Exchange visit.

All over the world, old students associations have become the avenues for giving back to the society that (which is) invested in them by giving generously to their educational pursuits. It is your turn to give hope to the current students in the college by serving as role models and mentors.

As we are all aware, it is practically impossible for government to shoulder the responsibility of funding education alone due to dwindling revenue, coupled with the fact that other sectors must also be attended to, despite the lean resources of government. The Old Students Association network has thus become a veritable tool for strengthening the Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the education sector.

Our public schools have been neglected by successive governments leaving them in total disrepair with dilapidated infrastructure, poor learning environments that are not conducive to learning and teachers with low morale. It is the combination of all these factors that gave rise to the proliferation of private schools many of which are sub-standard all over the country. Whereas private schools are solely profit driven business enterprises, public schools render society a vital social service by providing affordable education. It is these affordable public schools that guarantee the child of the poor farmer in my village the opportunity to access quality education at little or no cost. I must add that half the elite in Nigeria today are all products of public schools, myself inclusive. We must do everything within our powers to ensure that our public schools do not die. The systemic erosion of our values for quality education over the years has resulted in a situation whereby our pioneer secondary schools all over the country have been left to rot. This must change.

I commend the Government College Ughelli (GCUOBA) partnership with the Delta State Government in the renovation of infrastructure in the college.

I am encouraged that the association along with other Old Boys’ associations of public schools in Nigeria have keyed into the PPP model for the sake of our education sector and our children. I urge all our elites in Nigeria to remember their alma mater and their days of little beginnings and visit their primary and secondary schools. It is a beautiful thing to do.

THE OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION NETWORK HAS BECOME A VERITABLE TOOL FOR STRENGTHENING THE PRIVATE-PUBLIC-PARTNERSHIP (PPP) ARRANGEMENT IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR