By Dayo Adu
Members of St. Patrick Grammar School, Ibadan Old Boy’s Association 89 Set, have honoured their Vice Principal with pomp at its second annual Reunion ceremony held in Ibadan 34 years after graduation from the school.
The 84-year-old retired Vice Principal, Mrs. Moriyike Laosun, was showered with accolades, gifts and award plaques by her students who are now accomplished men in their various fields of endeavours, appreciating her immense contributions towards their academic pursuits despite their youthful exuberances.
Mrs. Laosun, who could not hold her excitement, expressed happiness at the metamorphosis of the secondary school boys whom she parted with about three and a half decades ago, saying, the occasion had made her fulfilled and many years younger than her age.
“I want you to say thank you to my boys. You’ll forever remain my boys. Some of my friends use to ask me how do you cope with them. St. Patrick’s boys, they’re very naughty but I was able to cope with them, the boys put eyes on me and sometimes, during inter-house Sports, they’ll release the names of those who are meant to be killed and my name will be on top of the list until later, they cut shot on me, I am still alive today.”
“You were mentioning you have Doctors, I said yes that’s what I expected, you have engineers, I said yes, you have politicians of note, I said yes and you have a processor here, I was happy, I am ten feet tall today for the joy I have today for what my boys have been able to acquire in the world. St Patrick’s boys will never be backbenchers.”
Mrs. Laosun, decried the level of decadence in secondary schools nowadays and blamed parents for eroding the system with their inordinate interest thereby relegating the standard of education.
“If a teacher beats a child, the parents will follow them to school and blame the teacher which doesn’t happen in our own time. The fear of teachers is absolutely lacking in the students. Government should place some punishments on earring parents to sustain the standard of education “
Earlier in his address, President, St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Ibadan Old Boy’s Association 89 Set, Reverend Niyi Dahunsi, who explained that the association had honoured its school’s former principal last year, noted that it was imperative to recognise their support system during their sojourn in the school.
“Seeds have been sown academically, morally, mentally, we’ve also had a good social closeness for five years when we were in form one to five and we left school 1989, that’s about 34 years ago and just last year, we decided to come together again so that we can begin to celebrate one anothers successes, progress if there areas in which anybody needs help, we help and we contribute our quota, we’ve become family and we can never unfriend that.”
In a keynote address, a member of the association, Mr. Adebowale Oderinde who spoke on the topic: “Developing innovative ideas after 50 as a Man’ urged men to pay close attention to their health so as to be able to cope with the challenges of old age.
“Let the men take good care of themselves, your health is important, take care of your family, learn to forgive your family and friends and eat healthily. It’s very common that you’re going to face challenges in life but how you handle it will make you a successful man.”
Two members of the association, who spoke with Radio Nigeria Messrs. Paul Oyelade and Oluelwatoying Akinpade, advocated the return of a process-oriented system from the current product-oriented system been practised in the present-day educational system.
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