Stellar Milestone School, Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State has held her annual graduation/prize-giving ceremony.
The graduating students consist of kindergarten, nursery, primary, junior secondary and senior secondary school students.
Sodeinde Olubowale, the school’s Director of Academics, at the occasion, narrated how the school started in September 2014 with 15 pupils and four staff members.
“Starting the school that year was a bit challenging because this was the year Ebola came into Nigeria which was later curbed; so, with all the precautions we must put in place, I began to think if the time was right to start the school”, Olubowale said.
“But all thanks to Jesus, everything was put in place and we were able to kick off and move on.’’
He thanked God for how the school has progressed and said the school belongs to parents and teachers.
He said, “If you can’t fly, make sure you are running; if you can’t run, make sure you are walking; if you can’t walk make sure you are crawling and make sure you are not stagnant”.
Olubowale was happy because the day marked the school’s 7th anniversary.
The Director told the graduating pupils that anyone could easily get discouraged in achieving the goal set before him “but for you not to be discouraged you must have good character if you are also holding a position, the only thing that will allow you stay in that position is also character; if anyone loses his/her character he has lost it in life’’.
The Director emphasised that character will always be the school’s watchword and also admonished the SS3 graduating students that they should keep their good character intact.
According to him, the reason they were given testimonial is because of the moral upbringing they had from the school.
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According to him, education is the antidote to poverty, so they should pursue all it requires to be successful.
In an interview with Sunday Vanguard, he expects that in the next five years, Stellar Milestone Schools would be a major private school to mention in Lagos in the delivery of qualitative education and also spread to other annexes and become first choice for parents and guardians.
Giving his speech at the occasion, Mr Olaitan Adebola Sunday, Patron of the school, thanked God because the school is moving to a higher level. He testified to the school progress based on the way the SS3 graduating students passed their Jamb and WAEC results in flying colours and he believed the best is yet to come.
“Teachers were trained to spot the uniqueness of every child, special subject like French music and sign language are well taught in the school”, he said.
While comparing education in the days of old to present day, Olaitan said education system in Nigeria is getting better if we look at the curriculum content.
“There is also improvement in method of teaching and the use of instructional materials. Though people say the education system in Nigeria is getting worse, I’ve always said that is because they only chose to look away from the brighter side.
“If we want to make decisions on education in Nigeria we need to make use of data. How many first-class do we have before and how many do we have now? How many students are studying courses like medicine, pharmacy, chemical engineering etc and how many are studying them now?”
Pastor Sodeinde Olaoluwa Moses of Bible-based Believers Baptist Church Igbogbo said that despite the degeneration in the school and educational system, Stellar Milestone School stood her ground and impacted more knowledge into the students.
Dr Sodehinde Olujide advised the students to know that hard work still pays and they can get to the top through this.
“They don’t need to cut corners and encouraged them to be good ambassadors of the school by shunning violence and corruption and living right”, he said.
