By Sunday Ani
It was a moment of joy and celebration for the entire staff, management, parents and students of Phidel College, Isheri, in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, following the brilliant outing of the school in the just released West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
For the past 10 years running, the school has continued to demystify WAEC exams with its record-breaking performances in the WASSCE, year in, year out. It has consistently recorded 100 percent successes in the exams each passing year, making it the envy of many within the state and beyond.
Expectedly, the recently released results followed a similar pattern. All the 43 students that sat for the 2024 WASSCE came out in flying colours. The best two students recorded seven A1 and two B, while the least performing students made four A1, four B and one C, thereby sustaining the college’s legacy of sterling performance not only in WAEC exams but also in other international examinations.
Speaking on the feat, the principal of the College, Mr. Olowo Olalekan, noted that recording a 100 percent performance in the WASSCE has become the school’s trademark. “That is what we are known for. And it aligns with the vision of the founder, which is to breed the future generation of leaders,” he said.
Although the principal expressed gratitude to the students for the uncommon feat of making seven A1, he noted that the school’s target was nine A1 all through. He, however, reiterated that the staff and the students would not rest on their oars until they break the record of nine A’s. “We had 43 students who sat for this year’s WAEC exams and all of them made it. Two students who made the best results got seven A1 and two Bs, while the least students got four A’s, four B’s and one C. We targeted nine A1 but, unfortunately, that did not happen. However, we shall keep working towards that and I am sure that we will achieve it,” he added.
Sixteen-year-old Imuze Esther Omoyeme, from Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State, and Jimba Aunjolaoluwa Rachael, also 16, from Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, led the 43 students of the college with seven A1’s and two B’s each. Both students attributed their success to hard work and the grace of God.
Omoyeme said, apart from hard work, her teachers’ dedication to work and their willingness to assist at all times, equally contributed to her success.
“I feel highly elated and I want to thank the teachers for their untiring efforts at making sure that the best in us came out. I also thank the non-teaching staff who ensured that we lacked nothing throughout our stay in the school. I also thank my parents for their support financially, emotionally and morally. Also, the chairman of the school for being a wonderful father to us, may God reward all of them,” she said.
Rachael said it took a lot of hard work for her to achieve the sterling performance. She also said her setback in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) acted as a catalyst that pushed her to work harder for the WASSCE. “My expectations came true in subjects like Mathematics, which is my favourite subject, Chemistry and Physics,” she added.
Rachael, who said her ambition is to study Computer Science, advised students to always start preparing for the WASSCE from their SS1. She expressed joy at her success, saying: “I feel proud of myself. I am also happy that I was able to make my school and my parents proud.”
Apart from Omoyeme and Rachael, other students who made six A1 and five A1, respectively, include Lanre-Agbedeji Olamide (6 A1 and 3 Bs), Nwosu Amanda (6 A1 and 3 Bs), Tiemo Editimi (6 A1 and 3 Bs) and Nwabudike Praise (6 A1 and 3 Bs). Others are Akinlawon Bolutife (5 A1 and 4 Bs), Melie John (5 A1 and 4 Bs), Chijioke Favour (5 A1 and 5 Bs) and Oshingbade Ifeoluwa (five A1, three Bs and one C).
At a time when many schools are recording abysmal performances in exams and many students are getting jittery at the mention of WAEC, students of Phidel College appear to have unlocked the secret to smashing the WAEC’s glass ceiling and coming out in flying colours year in, year out. One may be tempted to ask how they have been able to maintain such sterling consistency over the years.
Mr. Olowo would want to attribute the feat to God, whom he said has always been there for them. “But, apart from God, we also work hard at all times. As soon as we resume for a new session in September, there is a system in place that enables us to grill the SS 3 students from 7am to 7pm.
“Again, after our scheme of work has been completed, we have a quality assurance department that supervises the revision, which starts from the SS1 work up to the SS3 under the supervision of the vice principal, academic. The revision is topic-by-topic and subject-by-subject. We do that until December and by January the next year, we will start treating past questions and we devote about four months revising past questions before the WAEC exams proper.
“We handle more than 30 years old past questions and, to the glory of God, there is nothing so new under the sun. Once you are ready to do the right thing, God is there to support you. So, we believe in hard work and it has been working for us. We also encourage them to take active part in sports but we focus more on academics,” he said.
He attributed the school’s 10-year consistent successes to the students’ preparedness and willingness to learn, the teachers’ dedication and the support of the chairman. “So, it is a combined effort from both the students, the teaching and the non-teaching staff,” he added.
He also noted that the school has a way of unlocking latent intellectual potential of dull students and bringing them to manifest. He said: “When a dull student comes here, we brush the person up. There is a system in place called the intervention class. Immediately after the first six weeks, we analyse the students and identify those who are slow in grasping because we know that there are individual differences. So, we create extra classes for such students and it has been working for us.”
He commended the founder/chairman for taking the issue of staff welfare seriously. “The chairman has been very supportive. He is a man of God and philanthropist. Apart from everything he has done, there are incentives put in place to make teachers happy and that is why we are able to retain teachers here. Some of us have spent 11 years here and we are happy. We all see this place as our second home. We share the dream together and work towards achieving it. We even enjoy pension here,” he stated.
The chairman of the college, Pastor Ayodele Philip Adelusi, attributed the consistent successes of the school to the quality of teachers that the school recruits.
He said: “The teachers are professionals and when you talk about professional teachers, you are talking about people that are motivated by passion and not money. It is not money that motivates them; it is the passion they have for education: the passion to see the children turn out great in future. There is no amount of money that you pay them that will be sufficient for the kind of effort they put into their job. Are you talking about their sleepless nights or coming at weekends to teach the students? So, they are motivated by what the children will become tomorrow.”
He also said the management equally ensures that it fulfills its part of the bargain at all times. “In our own little way as employers of labour, anything we can do to make them comfortable and be able to discharge their duties, we do it, within the limit of what we have. We don’t joke with their welfare and we don’t joke with their salary. There has never been any kind of salary delay since the inception of the school, about 11 years ago. The salary has never spilled over to another month and we do increment almost 100 percent and, when you are hardworking, we compensate you. We motivate them and, by the Grace of God, our efforts have been working. We believe so much in God because with Him everything is achievable,” he said.
The elated Adelusi lamented that the current economic situation in the country was adversely affecting the smooth running of the school as prices of everything has gone high, and called on the government to assist the private school operators as partners in progress.
“We appeal to the government to help. By now, the government is supposed to be acting like the Bank of Industry (BOI) for schools. Education is the tomorrow of any nation. It is too important and there is no way we can go to the banks to borrow at 35 percent interest rate; it is not sustainable.
“There are a lot of things we want to do here but we are constrained by finance. If we have a place like other nations where one can get a loan at a single digit, we will be able to plan.
“We are not in competition with the government; we are just complementing what the government is doing in education. So, the government should find a way to help people in the education sector,” he said.
