ONE of the most memorable times of my life so far, were the years I spent at Christ Apostolic Grammar School, Iperu-Remo, Ogun State, from 1974-1980. The school was established in 1960 and we are marking the 60th anniversary this week.
My original graduating set was 1979, but had to return for an extra year as my father who was one of the pioneering students of the institution insisted I do, to get a better result to earn me admission into the university.
I still remember the embarrassment of my classmates with whom we celebrated our exit together coming to check their results and finding me back in the school uniform. When the extra year was over, I did better than my first attempt at writing the West Africa Examination School Certificate and got admission for higher studies that set me on the path of what God has enabled me to achieve in life and my career.
Today, I look back with nostalgia to those years spent in the school and I am very grateful to the founders, the teachers who taught us and fellow students who we shared unforgettable moments together.
Students of Government College, Ibadan, where I proceeded for my Higher School Certificate studies used to mock me about attending a ‘bush’ secondary school. But they knew better about the stuff CAGS was made of when I got the best result in the external General School Certificate examination.
Like one of my classmates, Chief Tunji Orishalade, a top legal practitioner, noted about the accomplishment of one of our seniors, Mr. Sola Idowu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the successes recorded by many of our old students have shown and proved that Apollo, as the school is popularly known, is great too in spite of its location in what used to be a rustic environment that has now developed.
That the school offered balanced and sound education of old, and hopefully still does is a tribute to the foresight of the founding fathers who took the initiative before the government took it over like other missionary schools.
With the modest facilities, CAGS offered so much learning opportunities in and out of the class. We lived in boarding house and mastered communal living as juniors and later seniors. We learnt to cut grass and performed basic chores some of us were not used to.
I recall the dining hall rituals, inter-house competitions, hilarious social gatherings, church service and other activities which complemented the class teachings.
Every day at the assembly we sang the school anthem:
God bless Apollograms
And make her prosper on
From year to year
God bless the School of Ours
With purity and love
Though tender
Yet so dear, from year to year.
Though some of us were very young then and didn’t fully understand the essence of the anthem beyond singing it, it captured the dreams and aspirations of the founders of the school which have since come to pass through the years.
I enjoyed the various songs we used to sing in the early morning prayer sessions like the one before examination to assure ourselves that we should not be afraid but put our trust in God.
Through the good and hard times of typical students’ lifestyles, we persevered and got well prepared for the years ahead.
CAGS is very dear to my family as apart from my late dad and me, I also had two uncles and a cousin who attended the school. We are all proudly Apollo.
One would have thought that facilities in the school like many other old ones would get better over the years. But unfortunately, that is not the case. Our Old Students Association has been doing a lot to support and still plans to do more. But then, government can do better to ensure a better learning environment for the students.
- God bless Apollo Grams and make her prosper on.
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