Owners of JFO International High School, Agbado Station, Ogun State, are happy that the school established five years ago, to provide qualitative secondary school education has continued to wax stronger despite the various challenges confronting private school operations in the country. The school, which began as a free coaching class for secondary school pupils with 83 participants, three teaching and three non-teaching staff, took off as a full-fledged high school on Monday September 9, 2011, with seven students and additional four members of teaching and non-teaching staff. With the vision: “To be a leading, internationally acclaimed school built on the solid rock of Christ transforming lives and producing the needed human capacity for nation building,” founder and proprietor of the school, Mr. Johnson Femi Ojolola, described the school as a centre of academic excellence and epitome of discipline.
Tracing the journey of the school located in a serene learning environment at Agbado Station, a suburb of Ogun State, he said despite the challenges including funding as a result of harsh economic situation in the country as well as the unfavourable government policies towards private schools, the school has continued to overcome these challenges through proper planning and facilities provided to ensure quality teaching and learning process. According to the educationist and philanthropists, “JFO International High School, a school of international standard per excellence, offers a functional education that will position the students as global scholars, who will compete favourably with their peers anywhere in the world in terms of the quality of knowledge imparted on them.
To facilitate the provision of quality secondary school education, the school could boast of adequate qualified teachers, functional laboratories for Physics, Chemistry, Biology and well-equipped library, as well as music and arts room designed to harness the ability of the students in other areas of their development apart from academic activities. In its drive for quality education, Ojolola, however, recalled that the school enrolment rose to 23 students in 2012, while the first set of nine Junior Secondary School (JSS III) presented for the 2012 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) passed with excellent results with one of them scoring five As and seven Credits. As part of activities to enhance quality education and expand the horizon of the teaching, under the school’s capacity building programme, the school, according to Ojolola, organised its maiden staff development seminar for all teaching staff in collaboration with the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos.
He explained that the school has dedicated and committed teachers, which he attributed to their enhanced welfare package introduced for them by the management in a view to improving their level of productivity and quality service delivery. Towards this end, the proprietor hinted: “The management undertook the upward review of the staff salaries in 2013 as a way of encouraging and boosting the morale of the entire workforce, and this has since become a regular phenomenon in the school.”
Determined to expose the students to other extracurricular activities and improve their knowledge base, the school, he noted, had embarked on series of excursion programmes, including those to the Whispering Palm Resort in Badagry; the first storey building in Nigeria, also located in Badagry; Coca Cola Bottling Company at Ikeja; University of Ibadan (UI) Zoological Garden and Law Faculty and LASU Museum at Agege, among others, saying such visits had gone a long way in exposing the students to new knowledge outside their classrooms. The school, which places high premium on the upbringing of the students as well as their value system, also visited St. Monica’s Motherless Home at Iju-Ishaga and Modupe Cole School for the Mentally and Physically Challenged Students at Akoka, Lagos, where the students and teachers extended their hands of love to the lessprivileged in the society.
The school, which Ojolola pointed out has continued to excel and win laurels in various competitions, recalled how it was selected on May 27, 2014 during the Children’s Day by Zonal Education Officer of Ifo Local Government Area of the state, to represent the LGA at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta for a prayer session for the 276 abducted Chibok school girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram insurgents in April that year, where the head boy led the prayer session and the head girl, the praise and worship during the programme chaired by Governor Ibikunle Amosu. With the mission statement: “To provide sound, qualitative and morally impactive education for all future leaders,” the proprietor noted that the management introduced a reward system, in which some staff members who were outstanding and remarkable in their performance in 2013/2014 West African School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology were rewarded with cash incentive to boost their morale.
Ojolola, who said that the school held its maiden valedictory ceremony in July 2013, expressed delight that all the students presented for the examination, performed credibly well with outstanding results. Basking in the sterling achievements and progress recorded by the school so far, he said: “The school held its second valedictory ceremony and the third graduation/prizegiving day for the Senior Secondary School (SS III) students in July 2014, in its permanent site at Ope-Ilu, Agbado, Ogun State, where it had relocated.”
The school, which celebrated the maiden edition of its founder’s day on January 22, this year, according to him, was a worthy celebration in view of the God’s faithfulness to the management, staff and students. He said the school, which has continued to keep faith with its core value, anchored on: “Our philosophy is defined and hinged on core value such as integrity, excellence, spiritual leverage, customers’ satisfaction and self discovery/independence thereby becoming a total child being above board in all ramifications of life,” will not rest on its oars in the provision of qualitative education and training of the total child. Therefore, he lauded the parents for their support to the school, saying efforts were being invigorated by the management to position the school for the challenges of the 21st Century.
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