Peaklane celebrates class of champions

The Balmoral Hall of Peaklane College, Akute in Ogun State, teamed with family and guests last Wednesday who came to felicitate with the 156 SS3 graduands of the school called the class of champions.

The joy of completing six years of secondary education was crowned with excellent performance in the recently-released May/June 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Even though not all the results had been released to the school, its Director, Mrs Ify Nwachukwu, told The Nation in an interview that all the 60 pupils who had checked their results recorded A1 in Mathematics.

She attributed the good performance to the dedication of the teachers in preparing the pupils for excellence.

“So far, they have released 60 out of the results.  The least we have seen so far is three As.  All of them finished with A1 in Mathematics.  That is our strength.  We give our students adequate exposure to Additional (Further Mathematics).  Even Art students are made to do the subject in SS1 and SS2 just to strengthen their maths.  They can drop it in SS3.  We do extra classes at no additional cost in the evenings and at weekends,” she said.

In her speech, Mrs Nwachukwu thanked the teachers for their hard work, saying: “I also want to thank the entire staff of the school for diligently pursuing the fulfillment of our set goals and objectives geared towards providing an enduring learning experience for our students.”

Addressing the graduands, former presidential spokesperson and renowned columnist, Dr Rueben Abati, told them to be deliberate in their actions as they would reap the fruit whether for good or for bad.

Sharing his own story, Abati told the graduands that his father, rather than celebrate him when he excelled, used to tell him his success was for himself.  He said he did not understand it for a long time but he continued to work hard. Today, he said he has five Masters degrees in various disciplines, charging the graduands to cultivate success as a habit.

“Everybody talks about success, but success is a habit. That means you must be focused and hardworking. You must work smart, set objectives and pursue them with determinations, he said.

In her goodwill message, a parent and guest speaker, Mrs B. Makinde, urged the graduands to imbibe the values of honesty, disciplined, hard work, dedication, humility and faith.

Chairman of the school’s Parent- Teacher Association, Mr Gboyega Oloniyo, said the young ones had been trained to be good leaders and hoped they would get a chance to display their talent in Nigeria.

“My only fear is that people that have gone before them should create the political space for them to manifest what they have been imbued with. I am so sure that this nation will come out of the wood very soon with the quality of education children are getting in this school,” he said.

Highpoint of the event was the presentation of prizes to deserving graduands and pupils in other classes.  The ovation was loudest for Oluwatimileyin Oyeniran, the overall best graduating pupil.