My Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
Distinguished Fathers of the Day,
Staff and Students of Esan Grammar School,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to thank the Almighty God for giving my very humble self, appropriately, this golden opportunity to welcome you all to this grand and eventful celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Esan Grammar School, Uromi – of which I have the grace to be the current principal. As you may know, Esan Grammar School is the first community Grammar School to be established to accelerate the educational advancement of Esanland in the second half of the 1950s. its original founding name was Ishan Grammar School, popularly known as IGS Uromi.
All I can tell you is that my tenure as principal has been very fulfilling, exciting and eye-opening, principally because of the great collaboration and ceaseless contributions I have enjoyed from the Old Boys of the School alias Esan Grammar School Old Boys Association. Their commitment, discipline as well as their individual disposition towards the sustenance and survival of the school is the bedrock of the enthusiasm upon which my staff and students have rested these past years I have been here. That co-operation shows in the successful preparation of this celebration.
I testify that the spirit of excellence that apparently marked their beginnings in this college still imbues every move they have made to overcome the mountain of development that has faced us, especially in maintaining our dilapidating infrastructure.
Before my arrival here, the Old Boys had built a beautiful, well-stocked books library to mark the school’s Silver Jubilee and, in collaboration with an appreciateive entrepreneurial indigene, provided two school buses which have, apparently, been lost.
- Their Association has continually helped PTA to hire Security Guards;
- They have financed, yearly, additional lectures and the employment of part-time teachers;
- They have donated 50 three-seater desks, in 2003;
- Until recently, they even provided packets of writing chalk.
Over the years, as a result fo the inevitable dwindling student population, due to known social and economic forces, as well as the fact that we are now just a day school, the Old Boys Associated has helped to ensure that our vast premises have not turned into a jungle, by continually assisting to weed it. In short, they have been the live-wire of our existence.
For this Golden Jubilee Celebration, you would have observed, on your way in, that they have built a monumental Gate Arcade in commemoration, and have reconstructed and rehabilitated the inner, original school gate.
But my most remarkable observation, which should take note of, is the comprehensive straddling of almost every human endeavor that the Old Boys have attained globally in contradiction to the physical situation of Esan Grammar School. Indeed, they have proved that the cloth does not necessarily make the monk!
That is why I am using this moment to appeal to the Government of Edo State, and other well-wishers, to take note of the inherent potentials of this vast school to regenerate it as a first-class educational institution. All Old Students of this School have been and are committed to that vision; so do we staff and students.
Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, to our celebration once more!
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