A visit to 156-year-old CMS Grammar School, Lagos, reveals some unique traits, writes Folashade Adebayo
Two skeletons stand in attention at the entrance of the Biology Laboratory of the CMS Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos, welcoming a first-time visitor. Rows of workstations with microscopes facing an interactive board immediately come into view, as well as another side stand with different kinds of rocks and plants.
But also mounted on the table, preserved in a chemical solution, are pythons and a human foetus with its umbilical cord still attached. Just as you may want to sprint out of the laboratory of the oldest secondary school in the country, taking the flight of stairs two at a time, the Head of Science Department, Mr. Obafemi Aderibigbe, adds to your grief: one of the skeletons manning the door is not a fluke, it is a human skeleton donated by an old pupil who instructed his family members to present his skeleton to his alma mater for the advancement of science.
Even the presence of a human skeleton and an embryo amazed Aderibigbe when he joined the school in 2001.
“I did not see a human skeleton throughout my university days, what was available were the skeletons of animals. The first thing our pupils ask when they come in here is how we came about the foetus and the skeleton. Both have been here for more than 40 years. When old boys come here, they still ask if the foetus and skeleton are still here,’’ he says.
Ask anyone in the 156-year old school and no one knows the name of the particular old boy who was so generous with his bones, a most unusual thing in a country where organ donation is not yet popular. However, the science teacher says the embryo, which is being preserved in a chemical solution, must have been procured legally from a hospital decades ago.
The principal, Venerable Tunde Oduwole, says the two materials add tremendous value to the quality of teaching and learning in a science laboratory. Oduwole, who is also an old boy, opines that only few secondary schools can boast a lab for each of Chemistry, Physics and Biology.
“No amount of picture can show you what a foetus and a human skeleton look like. It is a verifiable instructional material such that science moves away from the theoretical to the practical. A child who is taught in a laboratory like this is a different scientist from the child taught in a multi-purpose laboratory where everything taught is still in theory,’’ he says.
That may be right, but there are more lessons to learn inside the laboratory of the oldest secondary school in Nigeria. Placing some amount of salt on a heating mantle, the Chemistry teacher, Mr. Aluya Mudiaga, proceeds to measure the weight. Within two seconds, the mantle gives three different readings.
Watching closely, Aderibigbe attributes it to the ceiling fan blowing overhead in the laboratory.
“The ceiling fan is responsible for the fluctuation. I read about a research which says a ceiling fan is not ideal in the bedroom because it impacts on the weight of the individual sleeping there. It also affects his or her blood pressure. It is better to use an oscillating stand fan in a bedroom,’’ he says.
Mudiaga adds a shocker: the science world no longer recognises three states of matter. According to him, besides the solid, liquid and gaseous states, there also exists the plasma state.
“It is not yet recognised at the level of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, but we teach it here for knowledge purposes. There are now four states of matter. Think about it. How will you classified sparks from a transformer? What about aurora and ionised gas? They belong to the fourth state of matter,’’ he insists.
The scientists are also eager to show off ‘Man Friday’, an invention by their pupils. Built like a marine boat, the invention is designed to parade Nigerian waters and creeks to keep pirates at bay. According to Aderibigbe, it is fitted with a camera and uses renewable energy to function. He adds that the school has enjoyed the support of its old pupils who seem to be in a race to outdo one another in erecting structures in the school.
But the invention did not win the 2014 Schlumberger Excellence in Education Development. The Tai Solarin University of Education Secondary School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, won the first prize with a water-powered vehicle.
The human skeleton and foetus Photos: Folashade Adebayo
However, the oldest secondary school in Nigeria is much more than a unique history and antique buildings. Our correspondent, who visited the school on Friday, saw many structures that had been renovated.
The school has also gone through some metamorphosis, including a take-over by government and a return to the mission at some point. Large swathes of its land have also been encroached upon over the years.
Oduwole says the Anglican Church has always taken full ownership of the school since inception, but he also admits the impact of the old boys in the provision and renovation of facilities within the school premises.
According to him, the 2012 renovation of the science laboratories was facilitated by an old boy, Mr. Modupe Alakija, in company with some partner organisations involved in oil exploration in the Agbami Field, Nigeria’s largest deepwater project. The same group also facilitated a multimillion Hybrid Library recently presented to the school.
Also in the school compound is a block of 12 classrooms built by another old boy, the late Chief Henry Fajemirokun; a swimming academy and a tower clock by Folarin Coker, the Baba Eto of Lagos who is also the senior prefect of the 1941 set as well as a 240-bed hostel built and furnished by Alakija, among other interventions from the school’s old boys.
Oduwole lists some of the people the school has produced to include Nigeria’s first professor of Medicine, T.O. Ogunlesi, GOK Ajayi, Herbert Macaulay, Henry Carr among others. He attributes the attachment the old boys have for the school to the role it played in their formative years.
“Every old grammarian knows that but for this school, they would not be where they are today. A secondary school education is the developmental bridge for any individual. I call it the midfield of life. A game is won or lost in the midfield. The fate of a child is determined at the secondary school level. It is just the foundation at the primary school and it is already a superstructure at the university level, there is not much you can do again at that level,’’ he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment