Chief Yomi Otubela is the proprietor of Lagooz schools Agege Lagos, Nigeria. He doubles as a proprietor and national deputy president of association of secondary school proprietors in the country.
Unarguably, Lagooz College is one of the best secondary schools in Nigeria as it has won many laurels on home soil and abroad,while the products of the school are scattered all over the globe making giant strides in their various capacities. The school clearly distinguishes itself from the rest with massive successes recorded in WASSCE,NECO and A’levels examinations. City People’s duo of Deputy Managing Director FRANCIS OWOJORI and FEMI FABUNMI, had an interview with the proprietor and he gives an insight into the success story of the school , he also bares his mind on how the lost glory of Nigeria educational system can be restored. Excerpts
Can we meet you sir?
My name is chief Yomi Otubela, I am the proprietor of Lagooz Schools Orile Agege , Lagos State. I ‘m also the deputy president association of proprietor of secondary schools in Nigeria.
Briefly, can you tell us about Lagooz schools?
It is a co-educational school that was founded around 2002 in Lagos, and the vision of the school is to raise a world class role model that will contribute effectively to their immediate environment and the world at large. Our core values cut across professionalism, discipline, hardwork, self-reliance and Godliness. We make sure that we engage in co-curricular activities that help sharpen and mode the students. Currently we have been adjudged the best primary school in the Lagos state and another organization also bestowed on us as the innovative secondary school in the whole of West Africa.
Apart from this there have been special accolades the school has gotten in the past, some of our students won an all expense paid trip to Manchester in United Kingdom. The secret behind all this is because we carefully select all our teachers, our teachers are not only professionally qualified they are educationally qualified, we also make sure that their welfare is germane to us.Inspite of the harsh economic challenges we have, we still meet up by paying salaries as at when due.
Another key factor is we ensure that parent get value for their money,we also involve in community development, we maintain a cordial relationship with them and this has bestowed on the proprietor the chieftancy title of Akeweje of Orile Agege by his Royal Highness Oba Akeem Ambali of Orile –Agege. Our extra curricular activities also help us, we make students play scrabble, chess just to improve their thinking faculty. The major thing here is that our teachings are students centered.
What distinguishes Lagooz schools from other College in Lagos and beyond?
One of the factors is employing the use of IT solution and gadgets to help our students, and another factor is that turn-over of teachers at Lagooz school is very low, we try as much as possible to retain our teachers. We also have a welfare package for teachers that allows them buy land and own houses.
Apart from this we make sure that we carry out inspections from within, all these to ensure that note dished out to students is well prepared. Our instructional materials have also separated us , we bring didactic materials for students to see , some are instructional materials some are real objects. For instance if we are teaching rock we go extra length to get samples for the students and during summer classes we take them out to see and feel these things physically. We cherish educational excursion and instructional materials.
What is the relationship like between the school and PTA?
We have a registered PTA forum that is very effective, even the students pay a minimum of 1,000 every month as we speak we have about 25 million in that account and just recently they supplied the schools with computer systems inclusive of UPS to power them in case of power failure. They also help in monitoring the activities of the school, they give awards and special awards to teachers who have distinguished themselves. We allow them operate independently, sometimes they come with constructive criticisms and this help the school get better.
What mechanisms do you have in place to monitor the progress of your students upon graduation from Lagooz schools?
We have partnership with many universities abroad, like Leeds university UK, Convenant University. These universities have many of our graduands attending. Aside that we have Alumni forum where past students come to gather, we listen to their success story , complaints and all that.They also pay a token just to sustain the forum.Some of our children now have their own children back in the school because of the quality.
What is the success story in external examinations?
In WASSCE and NECO we have recorded 97.2% in these exams , yes we may have one or two that didn’t make 5 papers ,Last year a company rated us in the first 20 best schools in Nigeria using the WASCE result .
Recently, it was rumoured that this year Valedictory service a francas ensued between a teacher and a student which resulted in damages of property and theft of 1.5million naira, please shed more light on this and tell us the true story of the situation?
It was true that on Wednesday the Punch newspaper reported a case of theft, vandalism and assault,on the school, this did a lot of damages to us, as we kept receiving calls from home and abroad .The fact is that none of our properties was vandalized, part of the school is made of glasses and as you can see there has been no scratch on it.
They said Hausa boys used cutlases,matchettes and charms during the fracas but as you can see none of such happened. Even the journalist that reported the story also visited this place and took pictures of the building which he used to push the story yet he couldn’t pick shots of the damaged properties he mentioned.
This goes to show that there are more to the story than meet the eyes. I think we have a top editor at the Punch who is a neighbour, he always complain of noise pollution anytime the children are having their party and this same person had once threatened to deal with the school.
We have contacted our attorney to do their own investigation after which we will tell the Punch management to either retract the story or confirm it. Truth of the matter is we had a Valedictory service in the compound which ended well it had about 600 parents in attendance.
Actually, the families of some Hausa boys who drove here had a minor disagreement while trying to drive from the car park outside, it led to a fight between them, however, a teacher Mr John in the process of mediating , was mistakenly hit by one of the boys fighting , but it was nothing serious, the man didn’t sustain injuries.
All our effort to settle the fight proved abortive and we invited the police to come around ,these boys have since apologized, we have pictures of them prostrating before us for causing unrest in front of the school. It was a case of teenagers fighting we have cautioned them ,they have since realized their mistakes.There were no cases of vandalism or theft as rumoured We are at peace with the Hausa community, we establish cordial relationship with them we give scholarships to their children on fulltime and part time basis.
Cultism is a big problem confronting higher institutions and recently secondary schools, what is your take how do you think it can be curbed in our educational system?
I think the motive behind it is different from the results we are getting now, those days it wasn’t a violent gathering but these days it is being mis-used and abused. Students that are prone to violence see it as an avenue to achieve their violent ambitions. Cultism is unacceptable, I think we should go back to our value systems . in the past a child in the community is being corrected by everybody and not just the parent only.I also think we should work on drug sales and addiction.If we wipe out the sales of drugs, like heroine and hemp, we will have a sane community .
Another factor that can curb cultism is that our leaders should stop their craze for material things.Sometimes our craze for materials things can cause someone to go extra length and even employ violent means to get them.
What is your take on the educational system in Nigeria?
Since 2001 budget allocation for education has just dropped this year, From 42 billion it came down to about 40 billion this year, there have been serious shortage of fund, we have had cases of some schools not being able to pay salaries of teachers, some of our schools are not properly taken care of, we have a primary school at Agege here located close to a garage, this isn’t good for learning at all.
Salaries of teachers should be paid promptly because nobody can teach on empty stomach, if a teacher teaches on empty stomach he wouldn’t do it with passion, the end result is what we are seeing now in terms of WAEC results and all that. We need a leader that will get it right, someone that will truly put certain things in place, truth is it may take a while to get there, but we shall get there.
What is your take on the scrapping of post –Jamb?
Scrapping of post-UTME is a good development, students are subjected to double charges, it is unnecessary stress for them, many students have lost their lives while trying to travel to write these exams. It is a sheer waste of fund, I think what professors should do is to look at the activities of Jamb and correct their lapses. Truth is Jamb has got it lapses, all we need to do is to constructively criticize it and not condemn in totality.
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