Development of the School

It is interesting to note that the Abeokuta Grammar School has never been headed by a non-Nigerian. It is to the credit of those who have guided the fortunes of the School that they have succeeded, over the years, in ensuring that it can hold its own among its peers anywhere in Nigeria. This credit should be shared by the proprietors and a generation of Principals, Staff and members of the Body of Governors.

Project: The meeting decided that emphasis should be on maintenance of the renovated form 5 block rather than embarking on new project. In this case, at every meeting, there should be reports from the committee on the state of the building. Again, a reasonable amount can be set aside for yearly maintenance, be it repairs, re-painting etc.

Having the mindset that government alone should not be saddled with developmental responsibility, a group of old students of Abeokuta Grammar School specifically the set that got admitted in 1985 and graduated in 1991, has earmarked about N13 million for the development of the school.

Coming under the aegis of Abeokuta Grammar School Old Boys Association (AGSOBA) 8591, the set, which coincidentally is marking its 25th anniversary of graduating from the school, said it decided on its action by giving back to the alma mater, which was the basis of success, which its members have recorded so far in their endeavours.

President of the set, Mr. Oludare Olateju who led some of the members to the school’s 108 anniversary celebration in Abeokuta, Ogun State last week, noted that the set’s focus now is the renovation and equipping of the school’s Home Economics block after which attention will be shifted to other projects. He believes that if all sets could emulate them, the school will be restored to its past glory. The project, according to him, will gulp over N13 million.

“Since we left school, the spirit of Abeokuta Grammar School has always been with us everywhere we go. Even in our university days, we had those of us coming together but because of our situation then, we were not earning money, there was very little we could do, but in the last 3-4 years, we have come together to organise ourselves and we run via committees. So we have the welfare committee, the investment committee, the social committee, the mentoring committee, mobilisation and publicity committee, and for each of these committees, we have chairmen (the cell leaders), we have different projects that will take care of the present day students, members of our sets, and the school as an institution,” Olateju said.

According to him, the second phase of the Home Economics project includes procurement of about 30 computers in one wing of the hall.

“We have a member who is an IT expert based in Switzerland. He has been able to secure some of these from the Switzerland government and when the time comes we will bring them in. We have engineers among us that have given their talents, time and resources to put infrastructure in place for all of these. So, if you look back, if we have about 10 active young sets doing one thing or the other,” he said. Also, Dr. Jamiu Owodeyi, Chairman Mentoring Committee, disclosed that AGSOBA 8591 seized the occasion of the anniversary to reward excellence by giving out laptop each with full one year subscription on wifi to the best JSS student, best SSS student, and the best teacher for the year.