– INTERVIEW
– By Femi Abegunde
The recent award won in the category of West Africa’s Best School in Moral and Value-Based Education of the year among other several achievements has made Champions International Schools remain in the forefront in providing quality education. An interview with the Director of Studies, Mr Fola Adekeye, uncovered the secret behind the school’s successes.
WHAT ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ABOUT THE SCHOOL IN ENSURING THAT EDUCATION EXCELLENCE IS MAINTAINED AND IMPROVED?
“We are promoting discipline. Discipline has been and will continue to be our vehicle for academic Excellence. That is who we are. The school has zero tolerance for indiscipline in every area. For instance, promotion in Champions Schools is not automatic. No matter who you are in our school, you have to merit your promotion. Unlike some MIRACLE CENTERS that manipulate results for their students, here we drive forward with the vehicle of discipline. Thanks to the directorate, they are working tirelessly to achieve discipline in every area including among staff and students. So discipline is one of our priority and standard through which excellence is maintained.”
LET ALONE THE AWARDS THE SCHOOL HAS EARNED, WHAT OTHER THINGS HAS THE SCHOOL SET TO ACHIEVE?
“What we set out to achieve is to ensure that students who pass through this school do not end up cursing us. Imagine a school making a child to score A1 all through in his/her WAEC exams and is not able to score up to 100 in JAMB. Such children will curse such schools. That is why hell fire awaits some school owners who manipulate results for students. Why? Because every child is assigned by God and whoever derails them will be punished by their guardian angel. (Matt. 18:10) has more to say about this…. So, we have set to always achieve a standard that cannot be compromised which is, our students must pass on merit and by God’s grace, we have always been achieving this.”
IS THERE ANY CHALLENGE THE SCHOOL HAS FACED OR IS FACING AT THE MOMENT, AND HOW HAS THE SCHOOL DEALT WITH OR IS DEALING WITH THOSE CHALLENGES?
“Setting a standard and living by it has never been easy. There was a time we repeated close to 30 students in the school. Some parents were angry and some withdrew their child. Our faith shook but we maintained the standard. As a school we have taken some decisions that is never easy just to keep to standard. We are ever ready to save the destiny of any child through making him/her do what is right no matter what it will take and this has been our challenge and has also turn our strength because God has always been making this possible.”
IT IS NO LONGER NEWS THAT THE SCHOOL IS EMBRACING DIGITALIZATION, CAN WE HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS?
“Yes. There’s a need for development considering how the world is evolving. Also considering the hike in price on virtually everything in this part of the world, we needed to do something. Even now that some state governments are reducing the working days to 3 or 4 days in a week, if government is thinking like that, schools too must be thinking in that direction. So this brought about some improvements on our online schools. Once we have a very vibrant online platform, we can fully begin to have online classes. We first experienced this during the COVID-19 Virus. There was curfew at that time but we were still with our students through our online platform. Now, it can be possible to cut cost and stress of having to come to school every day. So, it’s a great development that the school has embraced.”
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR THOSE UPCOMING SCHOOLS OUT THERE?
“It is not easy but not impossible to achieve genuine academic excellence and that is what a school’s standard should be. Thank you.”
Edited by Segun Adesola
