A REAL TEACHER WORTHY OF REMEMBRANCE

Chief Olu Akinbobola was the foundation principal of Ondo Anglican Grammar School Ondo which was founded in 1959.

Every thing he did for the school then was of good standard.

Prior to the time of moving to our then hostel, we were using four buildings along Ife road and they were named Blue, Red, Green and Yellow hostels. He made sure that they were always kept clean.  Then our dining hall was behind Red house and were always kept clean but then were not appreciated hence the uncalled for riot them.

He constructed modern hostels in the school premises. The designs were different from other schools in that they were divided into smaller rooms as against long ones in other institutions. The toilets were sit-on water system. The first of its kind then.

 I also remembered our uniform then blue over white. These uniforms were imported.

There were well equipped three laboratories. These were biology, chemistry and physics.

The classroom seats were single and made up of Formica and plywood. They were factory produced. They were very convenient for learning.  There were working ceiling fans in the classrooms that made our head cool during classes.

Adequate text books were supplied to students covering mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, geography, English, history, additional mathematics, literature etc. I still remember channon and smith in arithmetic, geometry and algebra. I still remember literature books like Atom, Mahatma Ghandi, She stoops to conquer, Shakespere, Black Arrows, Gullivers travel, Tulip etc These are books to build determination to leadership in us.

I still remember the quality of qualified teachers he employed which included Mr Jacob (biology) from India, Mr Nez(physics) from Canada, Mr Akinjagunla the chemistry teacher from Ondo town , Baba Fadase- yan Lori yan nidi – Yoruba teacher and was always in aso oke etc.

I also remembered how he brought some people from university of Ife to advice us as to how read. I remembered one of them told us that anybody that will  not be able to consume four text books in a month then were not qualified for university education.

I remembered how Chief Olu Akinbobola our principal will arrange  us to march to Adeyemi College to watch live plays of Wole Soyinka like Dance in the forest etc

He never joke with our spiritual life. Every sunday morning we must file up and march to Oke Aluko for service. Moreover every day we must first have an assembly, sang hymns and pray.

He set up a functional Parents-Teachers association. Funds were adequately used and no single report of misappropriation. In fact he had no hand in disbursement.

Chief Olu Akinbobola was a strict disciplinarian and many of us cannot deny the benefits of this. I remembered he had Mr White, Mr Green and one other. Each depends upon the gravity of offense.

I cannot forget him because I benefitted from his Mr White. He forced me to read Additional Mathenatics.

I will forever appreciate him because when I got to post secondary institution -Federal school of surveying Oyo  -basic 12 set, the first lecture I had was Further Mathematics.

Today am a proud surveyor- a profession whose foundations are mathematics and physics.

Chief Olu Akinbobola we shall continue to celebrate you and remember you. You may be late but your works are not late. May God bless your descendants.

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