PKC’S Message

ADDRESS BY THE   PRINCIPAL, KING’S COLLEGE, KOLAWOLE ISAAC SOLA FCAI AT THE MAIDEN MEETING OF THE PARENT-TEACHERS ASSOCIATION HELD IN THE COLLEGE MAIN ASSEMBLY HALL ON SATURDAY 17^TH MARCH, 2018.

There is time for everything is a common saying and change is a variable that is inevitable in life. That is why this gathering is addressed today by me as the new Principal of the College. It is not entirely news to some of us, whom we were privileged to meet a day after my official assumption of duty and I had to perform my first official assignment with parents. I must thank you for the reception I was accorded. As morning shows the day, my meeting with JSS one parents has shown me what to expect from the very vibrant parents of this College. It was a great and rewarding experience. I welcome you all to this meeting and wish us a resounding successful deliberation.

The meeting of today will afford us to discuss as stakeholders and that is the essence of our gathering. I must also express my gratitude to you for your contributions in the past which I have got to know of, through various briefings that I have had. It shows clearly that you share in the notion that government alone cannot do it all and that standard is an elastic phenomenon, the limit of which is determined by existing ideas, experience and beliefs.

My first assembly witnessed a claimed in the students’ news of the College standing above others, “that is King’s College and the others” and I questioned the yardstick with which that is measured. Any claim of being on top that does not reflect the indices by which the quality of a school is measured is unacceptable to me. We must all therefore review our operations together and strife for a system that clearly place us on the pedestal of our oral claims. Therefore academic excellence and good discipline are my watch words.

To achieve this, we need your cooperation and prayers.

ACADEMICS            

Our essence of coming together is for the education of our children and the next generation of Nigerians in crave for our national development. It is a proven notion that a nation cannot develop above its education industry, we therefore jointly owe it as duty to ensure that the quality of education at our local level is competitive with global best practices.

I have perused the past results of the College and disagree on quality. I have expressed this in my meetings with internal components of the College and we have agreed on the way forward. My request from this gathering is to trust us enough to support our decisions in the course of our duties. To achieve our objective, a number of measures are being put in place. Students on their part should know that all academic activities are compulsory and must be attended to accordingly.

Mock examination for SS3 started on the 27^th of February, but was temporarily truncated for the Joint Matriculation Examination that just ended yesterday. The remaining papers will be written from Monday 19^th March, 2018. Second term examination for other students has just been concluded and we have few days to the end of the term. While the teachers are busy marking and collating results, various activities have been mapped out for the students and every student is expected to participate actively in these activities.

I must mention that I got reports that boys want to leave for the home with the connivance of parents as soon as examinations are over. This is unacceptable and fall short of quality standard in a school. Let me state this clearly that any child that leaves the College illegally has chosen to dismiss himself, as such will be viewed as voluntary withdrawal from the College. Vacation is Thursday, 22^nd March 2018, when every child is expected to leave for home.

DISCIPLINE

Discipline is a major ingredient for success and this administration will take issue of discipline very serious. In my years of experience I have seen self-discipline as a major factor for success and discipline in an organization, particularly a school system as precursor to conducive learning environment. Every child must be given the right atmosphere to achieve his potentials.

It is against this background that I wish to admonish parents/guardians to impress it upon their children/wards that tramping on other students rights and distortion of private comfort will attract commensurate sanctions. Other common conducts of indiscipline are equally condemned in strong terms and will be visited with appropriate sanctions. This era will expect people to be ready to take responsibility for the consequents of their actions. I am currently reviewing general conducts of the students and hope to see the best that a school environment can accommodate. Meanwhile parents are to note that this administration has zero tolerance for indiscipline.

I further advise parents to deliberately monitor the activities of their children and counsel them to eschew immoral conduct. The College has no room for morally bankrupt children. Be informed that there is provision for withdrawal on the basis of intolerable moral laxity.

EXAMINATION DESKS/CHAIRS FOR SS3

I resumed in the midst of the on-going mock examination for SS3 and was amazed at the poor sitting arrangement I met on ground. It is clear that a credible examination cannot be conducted under such arrangement. I want to reiterate the fact that West African Examination Council or any credible examination body will not accept the arrangement as seen in the mock examination so far. (However, I have been intimated of the arrangement being made with the parents of SS3 to procure seats/desks through for the final examination). It is therefore expedient on us to support the boys to have conducive writing atmosphere for their final examinations. I lend my voice to the arrangement on ground by my predecessor in office and appeal for timely response from those of us that are yet to do so.

PAYMENT OF FEES/LEVIES

While I have seen substantial compliance in payment of dues and levies, I have also been briefed on outstanding payments by some of us. I want to appeal that we should pay up our outstanding dues and get ready for the new term at hand. In my meeting with JSS1 students’ parents, issue of stressful experience of parents on the day of resumption featured and my finding informed that most of us wait until resumption to either pay our fees or to convert bank tellers to the College receipts on resumption day, hence the crowd at pay point and the cumbersome experience. The obvious solution is to take advantage of the holiday period for the payments, except second term fees which coincides with government accounting year and freezing of accounts to start the New Year. Please bear with us on this matter. We will continue to look for ways of alleviating your stress.

END OF SESSION ACTIVITIES

I have been informed that parents of SS3 students have agreed on sponsorship of their children end of year activities and dues have been fixed for these. I wish to encourage us to discharge our duties in this respect on time so that actions can commence immediately to safeguard failure. These events include graduation/valedictory ceremony, Year book and the peculiar ‘Prom’ of King’s/Queen’s Colleges.

HOLIDAY ASSIGNMENTS/HOLIDAY ENGAGEMENTS

Keeping children busy is a sure way to arrest their excesses and the tradition of the College in ensuring that the boys are not idle during the holiday is to be sustained as assignment will be given to the boys to be submitted at resumption. Parents are enjoined to support their wards in completing these assignments where necessary as they form part of their assessments for next term. I wish to encourage Parents again to scrutinize the kind of people and organization to entrust the affairs of their children to, during the holidays as many pretenders are out there to extort money for poor services or take advantage of children in unholy manner.

RESUMPTION/VACATION

Parents are to note that vacation and resumption days are sacrosanct and are as may be directed by the Federal Ministry of Education. The College authority will not compromise on early vacation and late resumption on flimsy excuses. Parents should ensure as a reminder, in particular to fix programmes requiring the presence of their children in such a way that it will not affect the College calendar. Our policy of not considering requests from parents to pick their wards before the vacation day as a result of booking flight for their wards on time or any other excuse not conforming with the College vacation remains unchanged. Resumption for next term is 15^th of April for boarding students, day students resume on Monday, 16^th April.

OPEN DAY

The College organized an Open Day for parents and students of JSS1 on Tuesday 6^th March, 2018.  The event was well attended and afforded parents to have a good knowledge of the conduct of their children, as well as their academic performance. It was my first experience with a section of the parents’ body. I admonish parents to continue to utilize any opportunity provided by the College to examine the progress of their children and their adjustment to school life.

The outstanding issue of payment for filling up of the quadrangle in the hostel at the annex code-named Abuja hostel came up and those yet to fulfill their promise were reminded to do so. This is a further clarion call to do the same. There is evidence on ground that the amount paid so far has been fully utilized.

Open Days for other classes will be organized next term and the date will be communicated to you in my end of term newsletter.

INTER-HOUSE SPORTS COMPETITION

The College Inter-House Sports Competition has come and gone. The event I was told lived up to its expectation. We thank our parents who spared their time to witness the event. It was a rewarding experience.

 

CAPITAL PROJECT

Three Projects from the government appropriation for the budget year have been completely executed. The others are yet to be cash-backed and may have to wait for future attention. The Kitchen and the dining hall at the annex has worn new looks. A VIP toilets of six compartment was also constructed at the main campus. The College was equally blessed with a new 17-seater bus to add to its fleet. Computer accessories were also given reasonable attention. The outstanding projects for the budget year are:

• Provision of borehole and water reticulation
• Purchase of computer and computer accessories
• Purchase and installation of electronic interactive boards

INFRASTRUCTURAL CHALLENGE

The College physical infrastructure is suffering from old age and environmental degradation, particularly at the annex where the sewage system poses serious challenge. We still count on you for the best you can do to support us in our battle to develop conducive environment for learning. This is an area that requires all hands on deck. Maintenance of our physical structure takes a lot of our resources and as partners it is necessary to express our need for more support. The issue of bed-bug in the hostel has raised a lot of concern both within and outside and management has been addressing this with the support of the PTA. The effort so far is to reduce the effect because of the health implication of the chemical in use

 

 

HOSTEL/CLASSROOM ITEMS

In addition to the usual hostel items for personal comforts, boys are to bring the following items to be inspected during the Checking-in at resumption.

• Air Freshener (2) for the concerned students
• Izal one litre for the concerned students
• 2 Sets of Cutleries by every student
• 4 Stainless steel plates, the usual size by every student

There will also be class due of five hundred naira to be paid to class teachers for minor classroom needs.

CONCLUSION

We thank God for His Mercy for leading us this far and appreciate Him for the hope of further guidance for a successful workplace environment and a tenure full of great expectations and meeting of our desires in our boys.

May I use this opportunity to inform you of the readiness of this administration to partner with you to put in place landmarks upon which a conducive teaching and learning environment for our students would be ascertained.  We are determined to leave our marks of excellence on the sands of time in the College. Our slogan is “Only the best is good for me.”

Finally, it is a beautiful day and a unique opportunity to look into the future together with hope that our young boys will always make us proud to arrive at the promised-land. A land full bright opportunity for everyone of them.

Once again, I thank you for your expected support and I wish you safe return to your destinations and a pleasant holiday with your children when they join you for the holidays from Thursday, 22^nd March 2018.

God bless you.