Gaining admission to Ekiti Parapo College Ido Ekiti at the commencement of the 1984/85 academic session was an experience I won’t forget in a hurry. It was an excitement that will last a lifetime. The anxiety would not even let me go check the result myself rather l sent an elderly person to help check it out.
Ekiti Parapo College was the first community college in Ekiti division of the old Western State and the second college in Ekiti after Christ’s school having been established on the 19th of January 1954 on a hilly slope in Ido Ekiti the present headquarters of Ido/Osi Local Government of Ekiti State.
This historical analysis will be incomplete without mentioning Chief Adepoju Akomolafe who worked assiduously to make the dream of EPC a reality. His tenure was followed by Chief Alfred Asebiomo who was a pillar of support to Chief Akomolafe in building a solid groundwork for a college that is now over 63 years old.
Interestingly, my admission came exactly 30 years after the college came into existence. Gaining admission to the Federal University of Technology Akure few years later was also exciting but can’t be compared to gaining admission to a secondary school of such reputation and standard and at that very young age.
The common entrance was tough and challenging and your mind is only settled when the results are out and admission offered. The conduct was by the then Ondo State Ministry of Education and the cut off mark for admissions were not just what you get on the tips of your fingers.
Pupils ahead of us then had automatic promotions to Class 1 but the statuesque changed thereafter. I can’t just imagine a prefect and a school timekeeper repeating primary six and coming back to write same common entrance again. A lot changed during my stay in the secondary school as we became the first set to write Junior and senior secondary examinations witnessing the kick off of 6-3-3-4 educational system.
Finding myself in Ekiti Parapo College was distinctive and exceptional. I actually did not realize how special the school was until after I graduated in 1990 seeing the calibers of old students the college had produced. Colleges like Notre Dame College Usi Ekiti was pretty close, Unity Secondary School Usi came a year later and could have changed if I so desired, Oganganmodu Grammar school was also a stone throw from Ekiti Parapo College and Christ School Ado Ekiti wasn’t a bad choice school but I just love my EPC. I later realized I could have picked a common entrance form for free and attend a Federal Government Colleges.
However information about these opportunities was rare growing up in such communities as they were available in city centres and there was no internet to access any form of information.
Today, I sit back to think how we coped in the 80’s without access to what happens around the world. Only the post office was a means of getting information to and from the outside world.
Appreciation to P.O.Box 155 belonging to The Apostolic Church Ido Ekiti. The box was one of the information disseminating tools that shaped my life as I later got my admission letter into the university through there.
The educational standard in Ekiti Parapo College then was exceptional. We had all the subjects’ teachers and were always in on-time sharing knowledge with robustness and potency.
I remember with nostalgia Mr & Mrs Markose, two brilliant Indians I met in EPC. The wife taught us Integrated Science while the Husband taught the Senior Class Biology. Mr Mensah, a Ghanaian with startling knowledge who taught Biology as if he was present at creation. Mr Nathaniel another Indian taught the senior class Physics like Roentgen the inventor of X-rays.
Mr. Joshua Adefidipe taught Chemistry with passion have made very good result from university of Ife then. Mr. Jokotola was posted as a Federal Government teacher and handled Mathematics with clarity and precision. Another Ghanaian called Mr. Oforiado taught fine art and would draw anything to show his skills in the field of Fine Art.
The Nigerians working in EPC then are exceptional in their teaching skills as reflected in various WAEC result released while we were in junior school. For my Ekiti Parapo, things went on well and we had all what we needed academically, morally and infrastructure-wise.
Old students were coming to encourage us bringing their wards from all over the country to come benefit from the quality of knowledge and standard of education they benefited from while in the college. They were very proud to bring their wards back to come drink from their cistern they drank from.
The Boarding house system was superb and unusual. All the wards of successful old students staying outside Ondo State and other far places are always in the boarding school. Kiriji, EPU, ENA and Komolafe houses were filled to capacity.
Today those dormitories have deteriorated completely. They had very nice time. We envied the boarding students who would just wake up and resume school unlike we that trekked about 7km daily. They look city-like compared to us who grew up in the local community.
Fortunately we got -along very well with no issues on almost all things like sports, quizzes, debates, club memberships etc. The relationship was so cordial and many are still kept intact till today close to 30 years of leaving college. We lived and schooled together happily till we all graduated in 1990 being the first set of the Senior Secondary school students in Nigeria public schools. Many were transferred to another school during the course of our study and many had to drop out of schools for one reason or another.
On ground as the school Principal was Chief S.V.K Bamigboye, from Efon Alaaye. A disciplinarian to the core. A Biologist by training. Chief Faremi a Musicologist was the Vice Principal. I won’t forget in a hurry the level of discipline they invested in us. I will not quickly forget the beatings gotten from Chief Faremi the VP for coming late to the assembly ground despite my JSS1E class being right in front of the assembly ground. The beating was serious. I never tried such again.
Interestingly, all the teachers did their job with all level of seriousness and dedication. They lived amidst us in the staff quarters. We were also very happy rendering some after school services to them by fetching water and helping in doing their farm works and partaking in bountiful harvests. We had plenty arable lands for school and individual farming. They saw us as children and were ready to give their best academically and morally.
It is pertinent to note that the government then was also responsible in its entirety by all standards and ramifications. They made everything available including proper regulation of school terms and sessions. The old students were also doing their best but can’t be compared with the provisions made in every yearly budget to make the school befitting with up to date laboratory apparatus for our use.
The student teachers treasured coming to Ekiti Parapo during their teaching practice. EPC had all what they needed ranging from accommodation to very conducive and productive environment. Their supervisors had also passed through Ekiti Parapo College either as HSC students or O’level students at one time or another. They all had the best time helping us academically and morally.
All the laboratories had all the needed apparatus. The Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Agricultural science laboratories had all the needed equipment including laboratory attendants taking proper inventory and care to make those apparatus and various chemicals long lasting. Unlike many other schools around us, Ekiti Parapo College had wood and metal workshop where many furniture and metal works were fabricated and hardly will you believe the delivery came from my beloved college. The teachers were wonderful. Very good relationships with the parents at the PTA meetings and engagement.
Spiritually, Reverend Koya Ajepe the College Chaplain was a man of unusual knowledge having just retired as the Principal of Federal Government College in Sokoto. He was always on ground admonishing us so we can be useful to ourselves and our community in the future.
One major thing that keeps ringing in my memory till today is the zeal and seriousness with which our teachers delivered knowledge, wisdom and understandings in all our classes. Why won’t they? They believed in the system. They admired the system. They were well paid and given good recognition in the school and the society. Their take-home was taking them home. Some of our principals were conferred with chieftaincy titles because the teaching profession was seen as noble and honorable.
They were never owed salaries and emoluments. Above all, their children were also part of us attending same class with us. Their children were not sent to private schools—not sure any existed then. We were all treated equally. Chief S.V.K Bamigboye had his children schooling with us and staying in one of the dormitories. Chief Faremi had his wards in public secondary schools in Ado Ekiti as he transits from Ado to Ido Ekiti every day in his wonderful Station Wagon Peugeot car.
The Datsun of our Chief Bamigboye was as quiet as breeze. You won’t walk magnificently to school assembly as you won’t know when the car arrives behind you and the impact of ‘Otori’ (strong cane) will announce his arrival. Mrs Adeyinka, Mrs Kumolala, Mrs Babatunde and others had their children schooling with us and they don’t have options than deliver their best to give us a very good future.
In retrospect, I can say it without mincing words that I had the best of time schooling at EPC. The school, the government and the society gave their best. The community and the society acted responsibly to make sure a future was created through the educational investment on a boy like me and many others. The responsibility of government in all these scenarios can’t be overemphasised and under-estimated. The government was absolutely responsible.
They did not put our future in the hand of mediocre and charlatans. They recruited the best hands to deliver knowledge and till date I still remember the height the knowledge shared has taken many of us to places even across the Atlantic.
We had everything in the public schools I attended and many other public schools in the then Ero Local Government area of Ondo state before Ekiti state was carved out in 1996. I’m a product of public school and I have no iota of regret about this and I hope dignity would be restored to public schools one day.
Same experiences go for all others who attended public schools within same period and thereafter until things started nodediving. We still sit together and talk extensively remembering very good old days and the best our society gave us. Don’t get me wrong, we also have bad eggs among the students and the teachers alike; however, the good ones outnumbered the bad ones.
Sadly and over the years too, the tide then started turning with negative consequences and implications on the students, the schools, the teachers and the society in general. The government became irresponsible and started withdrawing their support to public schools which has assumed a dangerous dimension till date.
Precisely, the onset of the establishment of private schools has not helped matters and it kept going from bad to worse. I kept visiting Ekiti Parapo throughout my stay in the university and thereafter. Everything has changed completely for the worse. It is a very sad development until few years back when the government tried waking up from their sleep to fix some deplorable and dilapidated infrastructures in the school and many others in Ekiti state.
Infrastructural decay has gone bad and deep and I begin to imagine the speed at which we can catch up fixing them before many infrastructure become unfixable. Reptiles and wild animals now live comfortably in those beautiful staff quarters. Some have been completely overgrown by thick bushes. No human being can live in those buildings again. The then existing and motorable roads are not there again.
My last visit to Ekiti Parapo brought tears to my eyes. The old students are doing their very possible best but the best seems not enough to arrest the level of deterioration in EPC and many other public schools in Ekiti State. The dormitories are gone.
Many of the roofs have collapsed. The more I try to remember the things I kept seeing the more I try to control tears running down my cheeks. The level of deterioration has affected every facet of the society. The zeal to read and excel is no more there.
The motivation has died completely. The teachers are not even bold enough to have their wards in the schools where they work. The situation where the Vice Chancellor of a first class university in Nigeria can’t have his wards in the university he presides over is a worrisome development and very disgraceful too.
The VC need be asked very tough questions. They are always celebrating their wards graduations in universities outside Nigeria. Is schooling outside Nigeria bad? No, it is not. Who do we blame here? The rectors and provosts of higher colleges sap enough money from the system to send their wards to universities outside the shores of Nigeria simply because they are not proud of the job they do. They rob Peter to pay Paul.
The government officials are worse. They caused the decay in the educational system because they have access to public money and send their kids to universities outside the country with so much capital flight. Will posterity forgive them? I do not think so.
Fast forward, the time is now to begin re-creating our future. We can’t afford to continue to waiting allowing the future to become bleaker than what we presently see. The old students are doing their very possible best to restore the glory of many of these schools.
The old boys of Christ’s school are exceptional in restoring their school to the glory of the past and it is yielding very positive results. Capable hands in the society should wake up and take up the responsibility of bringing EPC and other public secondary schools in Ekiti back to life. The government should wake up and come to the rescue of all the public schools. The government should stop owing the teachers and others their take home pay.Recent developments in those areas are completely worrisome.
The government can do better.
The time is now!!!!!!!!
Oloniboko left Ekiti Parapo College in 1990 and presently works as a Senior Development Geologist in Lagos
