Two students of King’s College (KC), Victoria Island, Lagos, Ayomide Oduneye and Ernest Akachukwu have been rewarded with $1000 each by the King’s College Old Boys’ Association of North America (KCOBANA) for performing well in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and school internal examinations.
Speaking on the scholarship, President, KCOBANA, Dr. Valentine Odife, who graduated from the school in 1988, said the performance of the students made the body increase its scholarship from one person yearly to two. “The students of last year did so well and we felt bad because we couldn’t give scholarships to all of them, so the alumni pushed hard to increase the donation from one to two students.
“I schooled here and I know what it was to go through this process. We can never pay enough to the school for what they did for us but we can always give back to appreciate, and this is our way of helping the next generation, Odie said.
Speaking on what has kept KC standard strong since it was founded, the Medical Director, Nursing and Rehab Facilities in the U. S, said: “One of the things that still make KC strong is the tradition where we expect excellence and making a student feel as if he is the best in the world, so the students keep striving to maintain that tradition, and with the great teachers we have in the school and the alumni, the school keeps producing great students.
“We have also realised that it takes a great teacher to produce a great student, so, we also want to recognise the teachers and appreciate their contributions. We want to have teacher funds to help them. Whatever resources the teachers will require, such funds will be used to assist them.”
The school principal, Andrew Ali Agada, said: “It takes the grace of God to raise these children. We have been encouraging the students to do well and promised to get them support, and I am happy that Akachukwu and Ayomide have made us proud and we are grateful to our old boys in the U.S for putting resources together to encourage the students. We are hoping to get more of this.
“I’d pledged that the school will give any student that scores above 300 in Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) N100, 000 in his first registration in the university and put his picture in the school compound to be the face of KC 2021/2022, so, these are various ways we want to use to encourage the students.”
Father of one of the beneficiaries, Ernest Collins Okechukwu, said: “Late Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who was a student of King’s College was from my area and my father contributed to his schooling and when I came back from Poland, I made up my mind that my children will school in King’s College. All my children are schooling here now. I am grateful for what the school is doing with the children. Akachukwu is one of the first KC students to gain admission to study Medicine and Surgery, so I am grateful for the scholarship and the old boys.”
Source: guardian