The Old Students Association of St. Charles Grammar School, Osogbo, Osun State has launched an endowment fund of $1 million for the development of the school and to support indigent students in their academic pursuits.
The St. Charles Old Boys Association also appreciated the efforts of the teachers of its alma mater with the sum of N1.6million, noting that with the diligence of the teachers, coupled with online extramural lessons it organized for teachers and students, the academic performance of the current students have largely improved.
This was disclosed by the Global President of SCOBA, Charlean Tade Adekunle during a press conference held at the school as part of the activities marking the 2024 biennial convention of the association in Osogbo on Monday.
Adekunle said that already, the association has constructed multi million naira projects in the school including hall, laboratory, e-library, ICT centre and currently the over N100 million sports complex project for the alma mater.
He added that the endowment fund would further assist the alumni body to carry out more infrastructure in the school and also grant more scholarships to brilliant but indigent students.
The association’s president therefore called on the Osun State Government to return missionary schools to owners who have shown interest in reclaiming them, stressing that it would restore morals to secondary schools and bring their glory back.
“We are already aware that the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo had met with Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke seeking for the return of mission schools taken from the Church. The prayer of the Old Students is for missionary schools to be returned. We believe that for us to go back to the olden days of morals, and bring the glory back to all schools, be it Muslim schools and Christian schools, owners that are willing to get back those schools should be allowed to have them.
“I can tell you that if the old students are not supporting these schools, if we are not supporting all the buildings, and reconstructing some of the buildings in these schools, it will just be a glorified St Charles.
“We have rebuilt the laboratory done by a set, almost N10 million was committed to that project, the new e-library structure is also coming up, you will see our ICT centre built by 81 set, whe they built it two years ago, they expended about 25 million, and they have started last year again to start equipping the structure. Those are quantifiable items.
“For sports complex, the fact is that if you access that project that is going on, it is worth over N100 million. Our football field used to be a little bit slanted, 650 trips of 20 tons of sand is what the field has consumed to level it and for us to achieve the track around it. This our alumni hall was built by old students and named in honour of Charlean Obeisun,” he said.
Speaking on the endowment fund, he said, “About the 1million dollar endowment fund, when we invest the money, it is the interest that we get yearly that we will continue to use. We don’t want to be begging every now and then to assist indigent students. Every now and then, we have paid for WAEC for our students. We also did e-learning programme for teachers and students.
“Last year, we appreciated our teachers with N1.5million and today, we will appreciate our teachers with N1.6million. We will continue to support our students in their academic career. We have one right now in NDA, Kaduna, going for Air Force, we have one in UNILAG, at 300 level now. It is part of all this SCOBA endowment fund will allow us to do more and continue to impact and add value to our alma mater.”
