The pioneer Students of Ijebu Muslim College Ijebu Ode under the auspices of Ijebu Muslim College Old Students Association (IMCOSA), 1962-68 set, said they had spent over N100 million in the last 25 years to improve the academic and infrastructural facilities in their Alma Mater.
IMCOSA said some of the interventions include medical supplies to school health clinic, resuscitation of hostel/boarding system, building of blocks of classrooms, facility, and dualisation of the road leading to the school compound among others.
IMCOSA former President Hamed Babajide Lawal, said this during the association’s 60th anniversary (Diamond Jubilee celebration) of the set.
Lawal said they decided to mark the Diamond year in appreciation of God for keeping them alive, and for their achievements over the years.
Lawal, who is the Publicity and Publications Committee Chairman of the anniversary, urged students to make good use of the facilities.
President of IMCOSA 62-68 set, Ademola Shote, lamented the drop in the standard of education.
Shote called for a return to era of merit, qualitative assessment and end to mass promotion of students, saying it is the way to redeem the situation.
He said: “You see, in our days, when we entered secondary School, you have to merit admission to school. Today, you just go in there. Whether you merit it or not, they just push you in and when you keep pushing them like that, there will be no quality. Quality has been relegated to the back door. And in our days, when you were a student, you strove to be first among equals, there was competition getting promoted to the next class but these days, it is just mass promotion. So, you can’t compare the quality of education now to what obtained then. My suggestion is this: Let’s go back to qualitative education assessment.
“We have to go back to qualitative assessment. If we continue to do mass promotion and mass admission, we will continue to get the same poor result. Unless we change the system, change our orientations. This should come from home. A lot of parents encourage their children and wards to cheat. Education has lost its value here.
“In our time, the craze to go to government school was the in thing. The craze that you were in a government school was a thing of pride, but today, secondary school run by the state or federal government is less fancied. People would want to send their children to private secondary school because that is where you have quality. Now you get what you paid for. That is it. The government has relegated its service in that area to the background.”