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Excitement as Catholic Comprehensive High School, Ibara old students reunite

It was an exciting and fun-filled day when the 1987 and 1988 graduating sets of the Catholic Comprehensive High School, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State, reunited for the first time in 33 years.

 

The old students, who met in Lagos at the weekend, used the opportunity to reconnect and celebrate the grace of God over the lives of members.

The National President of the old student’s association of the school and other members of the National Executive Committee also attended the reunion. The group used the occasion to invite medical practitioners to lecture them on health issues, conduct tests like sugar level among others.

 

Speaking at the reunion, the President of the 1987 and 1988 sets, Pastor Abiodun Soderu, expressed happiness in meeting his former classmates and schoolmates for the first time since their graduations.

 

He said: “It’s been very exciting because it is well over 30 years that I have seen most of these people. In fact, there are many of them that I cannot remember again and many people cannot remember too. So, it’s been exciting, humbling and unfortunately few of us have died.

 

But it has been exciting and we thank God. “It is very unique because we are two sets but we always love to be together. We are the sets that finished 87 and 88. So it is actually two sets in one from the Catholic Comprehensive High School Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State. Some finished 1987 while others finished 1988 and this is the first time we are having a reunion since we left school 33 years ago.”

 

According to Soderu, the old students are determined to assist the school in addressing some of the infrastructural deficit in the school. He said so far they have assisted in drilling a borehole that supplies water to the toilets and laboratory within the school.

 

“We have provided a modern borehole connected to the laboratory and we also want to sponsor some graduating students from the school in registering for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

 

But the major thing we have done now is the borehole and to connect it to the toilets and laboratory.”

 

In his welcome address, the National President of the old students association of the school, Yemi Adegbite, applauded the set for their ability to organise the first reunion in the history of the association.

 

He charged the set to continue being the pacesetters in the school. He thanked them for their cooperation with the national and urged them to continue doing good work for the school. He said: “We are able to get to where we are because of your corporation and I want to challenge that in that corporation you should not relent because we have not reached where we are going.

 

By the time we get there, we will all have the course to say thank God we started well. “This set of 87/88 I want to give you  a challenge. You are the set that gave birth to the national body in 2019. I don’t know if you are aware and for the baby not to die, it has to be properly held by you.”

 

The Chairman of the Reunion Committee, Joseph Akinjobi, used the opportunity to relish his experience in the school. “Sincerely, then we had a principal and his name is Chief S.O. Odebiyi. He took all the students whether you are from a rich or wherever you come from as his children and he tries as much as possible to make us comfortable. He laid a lot of foundation for us and that is one of the principles we are having here today.

 

“One of the challenges we had in school then was that we did not have a mathematics teacher and English teacher. You know what this Chief S.O. Odebiyi did, he approached the Teaching Service Commission and he personally scouted for teachers and he got us, one teacher, for mathematics, Mr Adesola, he is now a Ph.D. holder. “He took us in mathematics and that man was wonderful in mathematics.

 

For English, we had about three or four teachers, one for comprehensive, one for composition, one for grammar and the last one for letter writing. Above all, we all had an opportunity to come out with good results though some may not have furthered their education.

 

They are having their own businesses and they are doing wonderfully well,” he said. On her part, another member of the sets, Olamide Blessing-Kayode, expressed her joy in meeting some of her classmates after more than three decades.

 

She said: “I feel good and it gave me a nostalgic feeling because we left Catholic Comprehensive High School about 33 years ago. After school all of you will go separate ways, thank God for technology and WhatsApp that brought all of us together. So, I’m really glad to see all of them. I know a lot of them because I was the senior prefect and it was a good experience growing up.”

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