Former National President of All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Elder Enoch Olaleye Dare recently clocked 80 years. The Ipoti Ekiti born Octogenarian used the occasion to appreciate God for His mercies and blessings.
Dare, a distinguished educationist and administrator per excellence was a principal of several colleges in old Oyo and Ondo States including Aquinas College, Akure, when he was at the helms of affairs of the school between 1977 and 1986 before he retired voluntarily from the service of Ondo State.
He spoke with newsmen at his residence on topical issues of national interest, over the weekend.
Excerpt Q: Can you share your life history briefly and how you have been coping with life after retiring from government’s service?
I was born on October 8, 1933 into the family of Late Pastor Samuel Ajisafe Dare of Ile-Asa, Ipoti Ekiti. My late mother, Mrs Abigail Omoyajowo Dare who was a trader was also from Ipoti Ekiti.
I attended Seventh-Day Adventist Primary School in Ibadan and Otun Ekiti between August 1942 and December 1948. Thereafter, I proceeded to Government College, Ibadan from where I obtained the first grade certificate. I also attended Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan before I eventually got Masters of Arts Degree in Education of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA in June 1971.
For the period of 23 years, May 1959 to September 1986, I served as a science teacher and school administrator, being a principal of various schools such as, Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife; Adventist Grammar School, Ede; Baptist Grammar School, Ibadan and Aquinas College, Akure.
To the glory of God, I held a number of state and national leadership positions including the President, Ondo State Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) from 1979 to 1982 and National President of ANCOPSS for two terms of four years from 1981 to 1985.
I was already at the apex of my career because the Governor of the State then, Late Michael Adekunle Ajasin had upgraded me to level 16, Permanent Secretary level before one of the Military Administrators that took over from him. I think Opaleye, was misdirected by some Permanent Secretaries then that the best way to reduce the waybill was to reduce the number of teachers in the state.
So, he sacked many workers. Out of 7,000 that were relieved, more than 6,000 were teachers. That was how they started to ruin education in Ondo state. So, with my track record of achievements, I wrote on behalf of some of my colleagues that we wanted to resign voluntarily from the service instead of being pushed out and we tendered our resignation.
Since then, I have been operating privately. As soon as I returned here because though I’m from Ekiti State but Ede has been our second home, I joined the retired principals’ forum and on several occasions, state governments and even federal have been inviting us to formulate education policies, deliver papers at seminars, workshops with the aim of solving the problems confronting education in the country.
My retirement has also given me the opportunity to involve more in the activities of my church, Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In one word, life after retirement has been remarkable and pleasant. I give glory to God.
Q: Before your retirement in 1986 from the service of Ondo State Government, you had served as a teacher and principal of several schools. Can you share your experiences?
Definitely, we will not conclude this interview today if I have to share my experiences from the time I was a science teacher till when I retired as principal of Aquinas College. But what I can tell you is that I had incredible and outstanding experiences. I started as a science teacher, teaching Biology and Chemistry at Boys High School, Ibadan on part-time basis in 1958. Later, I taught at Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife before I was transferred to Adventist Grammar School, Ede, where I first became a Principal.
I was transferred from Baptist Grammar School, Ibadan, to Ondo State in 1977. When I got to Akure, I was to be the principal of Anglican Grammar School, Iju-Itaogbolu but on getting there, I met one of my close friends, Mr. Ade Iluyemi who had taken over as a principal and he told me that I had been posted to Aquinas college.
The state government insisted that I should move to Aquinas College from where Iluyemi was transferred. To me, it was a great task because of the intimidating records of the school in the past but when I got there, I discovered that a lot needed to be done.
For instance, I met that there was no enough furniture because I discovered that three students were occupying a chair. Immediately, I alerted the members of the school’s board of governor. I still remember that Prof. Adegoke was my Chairman and Engineer James Olusoga was in the board and they all supported me. We swung into action and N64,000 was the first money that was released to me. We went to Lagos and bought 600 chairs so that every child could have a seat.
Being a sportsman myself, I encouraged sporting activities because the school was known for winning laurels. We went ahead to tackle the issue of indiscipline in the school. We put in place series of measures to instill discipline in the students and ensured that those who violated the rules and regulations we put in place were punished.
Another challenge which we faced when we resumed was that the school was not fenced whereas it was a boarding school. We constructed a fence round the school and before I left in 1986, we have restored the lost glory of the school.
Q: As an educationist and former administrator of different schools with excellent record of achievements, how do you think Nigerian education can be re-positioned to arrest the falling standard of education? What is your advice to the federal government over the on-going strike by members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which is about four months?
I feel very, very sad that our education system has collapsed. When I was in the service, there was a national policy on education in place. Then, stakeholders were invited to advise the federal government on how the policy could be successful.
We offered suggestions in respect of what should be done for the success of the policy. Of course we know that finance, funding of education is very imperative and we equally advised that government should provide adequate equipment and the relevant books. Likewise, we talked of training of teachers to boost their service delivery and emphasized the importance of motivation of the teachers. It was a very sound policy, well-written out and it became operative in 1982.
But what I have discovered is that we are only good in talking. Implementation of policies and recommendations have been our problems. A lot have been wrong in the implementation of that policy. Again, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo came on board, he initiated the Universal Basic Education with the aim of tackling the challenges facing the elementary education in the country but again, implementation is the problem. We are only good in policy formulation.
On ASUU strike, it is disheartening that undergraduates in the country have been out of school for the past four months. Incessant strike action is not good for our education system but the action of the Lecturers is in the best interest of our education.
Our degrees are not acceptable to the western nations. When they resume now, they will start conducting examination for them. What type of certificate are they given out? It’s obvious that graduates in the country cannot compete favourably with their counterparts from other countries.
I do not understand what is going on in the country. Before now, I expected that the members of the National Assembly should not have intervened so that it wouldn’t have dragged to the level. I want to appeal to the federal government to yield to the demand of the lecturers in the interest of the future of education in the country.
Q: The Federal Government has agreed to organise a national conference for Nigerians to discuss the issues affecting them and chart a new course for the country to achieve socio-economic and political development. What is your advice for the federal government and Nigerians on this issue?
Well, I think the problem lies largely on Nigerians. Our people must write memo on how they want the conference to be. As a democratic society, we must do what the majority of the people want. This is why we must appreciate the federal government for its readiness to organise this conference because many of our people have been asking for it. Every region, every ethnic group must be allowed to have a say and we must disallow a region or ethnic group to dominate the whole thing otherwise, nothing tangible will come out of the exercise.
However, to me, the choice of a politician to head the advisory committee is wrong. There are people with proven integrity that can be saddled with such important responsibility. I believe strongly that something good will come out of the conference but if it’s left in the hands of politicians, I believe we will get nowhere, this is my concern for now. Again if the recommendations will be subjected to the ratification of the national assembly, I don’t think that we will achieve the desired results.
To me, we need to address issues like; our lopsided federalism system, unemployment, resource control, local government autonomy, state police, corruption, election rigging to ensure that the votes of our people produce their leaders.
I don’t know, we can only hope for the best. In fact Nigeria’s population is more than the population of the rest of African nations. We must not allow the exercise to eventually result to disintegration of the nation because if it happens, it will be very disastrous not only for Nigeria but for the entire Africa. Nigeria must not disintegrate.
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