By Rev. Fr. Anthony Adetayo

The Director of Education of the Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode, Very Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Matuluko attended the graduation ceremony of 2020/2021 graduating set of St. Anthony’s Grammar School Private, Esure on Tuesday 5th October 2021 where he made this assertion.

The cleric who was visibly unimpressed by the reluctance of the government to return schools to the Catholic mission lambasted this unwelcomed attitude of the government despite the decline in educational standards in the public domain. He insisted “it is high time all of us sang a song of return of schools to the original owners. It is only someone who does not cherish morality, nobility and aesthetics that will stand against or not be disposed to the return of schools to the original owners.” According to him, “everyone knows that the Catholic educational standard from onset is known for excellence to the highest order even universally. This means that the process of return of schools should be fast-tracked.” The statement was made in the presence of students staff members and principal officers from various public schools who were invited to the ceremony and many of them nodded in agreement to the need to return Catholic standard of education by returning the schools.

You will recall that many mission schools were taken over by the government of Nigeria and have since lost the steam of excellence. One will simply hope that the government will do the needful in answering this clarion call by various right-thinking stakeholders to hasten the return of schools to the original owners.