Education
In contemporary times, western education had been the vogue throughout Ekiti. Ado-Ekiti took the lead with the number of educational institutions.
In March 1896, Old Emmanuel School was established at Odo Aremu. In 1917, the Roman Catholic Mission established St. Patrick's Primary School. By the 1950s, the number of primary and secondary modern schools had increased very substantially. By 1974, the CMS alone had 104 primary schools, 8 secondary schools, and a teachers' college.
In the early 1930s, the The Venerable Archdeacon Henry. Dallimore superintendent of the CMS mission established Christ's School in 1933. It was raised by the priest to a Middle School and finally towards the end of the 1940s it became a full-fledged Grammar School. He was succeeded as Principal and High Master by Canon LD Mason from 1948-1966. Chief RA Ogunlade was Principal from 1966 to 1972. Christs School, Ado-Ekiti has contributed greatly to the educational and scientific advancement of Nigeria in general and Ondo-province in particular. Within a short span of time Christs school had produced one of the highest numbers of Professors in virtually all fields of learning and especially the professions in Nigeria. Christ school, was indeed, the basis of the epithet that Ekiti is the "fountain of knowledge". Christs school Alumni are found in academia and professions around the world today. In the early 1950s, the Ekiti Progressive Union built a second grammar school at Ido-Ekiti. Soon after the CMS agreed to separate Christ's School into two (boys' section and Girls' Section)-as a result of the major road(Iworoko Road(Ilewu Road)which naturally divided the two sections into two) viz: Christ's School,Ado Ekiti and Christ's Girls' School,Ado Ekiti.
Thenceforth, communities took it in their strides to raise funds and establish a number of community grammar schools. Ado-Ekiti established its own in 1960 and another one towards the end of the 1970s. The number of Grammar Schools kept increasing and by the year 2000, there were twelve pupil grammar schools, private grammar schools numbered six, a total of eighteen. The Federal Government established its polytechnic at Ikewo, Ado-Ekiti, the defunct Ondo State University established its University at Ilewu, Ado-Ekiti.
Within a period of 50 years, much development in western education had taken place in Ekiti in general and Ado-Ekiti in particular. What a leap! Chief E. A. Babalola, a native of Oye-Ekiti was first University graduate in Ekiti. He was a high school master in 1947 and he took over the management of Christ's High School, Ado-Ekiti when Archdeacon Dallimore retired and left for Britain. Today, the Ekiti are found in large numbers in every academic and professional positions, Ado-Ekiti has its fair share in this industry.
Read more about this topic: Ado Ekiti
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881)
“We find that the child who does not yet have language at his command, the child under two and a half, will be able to cooperate with our education if we go easy on the “blocking” techniques, the outright prohibitions, the “no’s” and go heavy on “substitution” techniques, that is, the redirection or certain impulses and the offering of substitute satisfactions.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“A woman might claim to retain some of the child’s faculties, although very limited and defused, simply because she has not been encouraged to learn methods of thought and develop a disciplined mind. As long as education remains largely induction ignorance will retain these advantages over learning and it is time that women impudently put them to work.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)