By Ebele Orakpo

BENEFIT: Speaking on what the school stands to gain as a member of NEASC, Justice Adebiyi said they were skeptical initially but after looking at the history of NEASC, “we saw it was an opportunity to challenge ourselves to  deliver world class education with the support of the Trust Council.

“NEASC will help us to get the school to international standard. The board provided strategic direction, funding and supported management even when we had some stops along the way. We kept getting the list of items needed to pull up the school in terms of infrastructure and training. Mrs. Adesina, the present CEO was part of the secondary school at the time.”

*From left: Chairperson, Corona Secondary School Board, Hon. Justice Bukunola Adebiyi; CEO, Corona Schools Trust Council, Mrs. Adeyoyin Adesina; Principal, Corona Secondary School, Mrs. Chinedum Oluwadamilola and Corona Parents representative, Mr. Bolaji Okoya, at the media briefing in Lagos.

Membership of NEASC, a body that accredits schools across the world, “is essentially an improvement exercise. There are post-accreditation and other visits that would follow. The next one is in three years; it is a continuous thing. We are not going to rest on our oars. It has helped us to look inward.Members of  staff and  students were part of the process as everybody was interviewed,” said the principal, Mrs. Chinedum Oluwadamilola.

Curriculum:  NAESC is not out to introduce American curriculum “but every school that they accredit must be operating at certain levels that meet international standards. This  cuts across facilities, governance, processes, security, safety etc. The accreditation process has taken us four years and we had four visits. The last visit was this year and at the end, the body met, did the inspection again and finally qualified Corona to be a member of NEASC. We are the only school in Nigeria, second in West Africa and one of the first schools in Africa. We run a Nigerian curriculum.

Accreditation: “The NEASC accreditation process started four years ago. At the time I got to the secondary school, the process had started and we continued because there were lots of things to put in place majorly infrastructure, curriculum, teaching, learning, safety, policies,  governance structure (they needed assurance that there would be continuity in funding for the school to continue to grow) and our financial standing as well. Those were the areas we needed to put together to ensure that we meet the prescribed standard. We had a steering committee led by the Vice-Principal, Pastoral (Welfare), Mr. Paul Obah and the Secretary, Mr. Anthony Ilobinso. There was a preliminary visit to determine whether or not we were able to commence that process. The major one was the Self Study visit by six members from Turkey, China, UK, USA, Ghana and Tunisia. They came with a wealth of experience and they knew what they were looking for. They were with us for five days.  Following that visit, they pointed to areas that needed improvement.

After the May visit, they gave us the accreditation in June,” said the principal.

The CEO, Corona Schools Trust Council, Mrs. Adeyoyin Adesina said Corona had to go to Kigali in Rwanda to share a note with one of the schools that got NEASC accreditation after the six team members visited. “As the only school in Nigeria, we didn’t have anybody to look up to. Ghana was the first to get it in West Africa and because one of the visiting members was from Ghana, we had to jettison that idea. So it was a thorough process and not window-dressing.”

E-learning

“We were the first school in Africa to get the e-learning platform so our students could do all the assessment online; that hasn’t changed the class teaching. In 2013, we took part in a secondary school competition that involved different nationals. Corona was one of the three finalists which included United World College, Singapore and a school in Australia. We got the award. In the just-released 2017 WAEC results, the school has a total of 561 distinctions i.e. 86% of the total grades and 100% in Mathematics and English. The school has won several awards as best in secondary education and quality education. Our products are in Ivy League universities abroad,” said Oluwadamilola.

Sustainability

Corroborating the principal, Adesina said the school takes care of the staff and their professional development. “Corona is not owned by an individual, it is owned by a Trustee.  We have been operating in the last 62 years. The organization and ownership structure makes it a very strong brand. Many generations that have passed through the school one way or the other are still involved. We are all committed to Corona to ensure that the legacy continues.

On what has endeared him to Corona where two of his children are students, Mr. Bolaji Okoya, one of Corona parents’ representatives said: “As parents, we all want the best for our children and you don’t want them to fall below standard. I am here today because NEASC accreditation has once again defined what Corona stands for.”

“It is not an opportunity to rest on our oars. It is simply being able to do what you do to meet the international standard and to be able to carry the international label with confidence. Presently, we have a delegation of our students in USA attending the Global Youth’s Leadership Conference. Two of our outstanding students were invited to the inauguration of President Donald Trump as special guests,” said Paul Obah, Chairman, Steering Committee of NEASC.

For Anthony Ilobinso, a Biology teacher and one of the secretaries of NEASC, what drives him about Corona is passion and commitment to duty. There are schools with accreditation but NEASC is different.  You are not paying any money, you have to go through rigorous exercise which shows the whole process is real and objective.

In the next 10 years, Adesina said with the new initiative called Teacher Education through Corona College of Education, Corona will begin to influence policies that will affect Nigeria’s education industry