ALUMNUS: REDISCOVERING YOUR ESSENCE!

Being text of Anniversary talk delivered by Professor Adio Folayan during the 63rd Founder’s Day and Global Reunion Festival held between16th and 17th November, 2023

Protocol.

History had it that in the wake of establishment of post primary institution in Efon, there came the emergence of Anglican Secondary Modern School in 1956, the Saint Finbarrs Catholic Secondary School in 1957 and Christ Apostolic Church Grammar School in 1958. In September 1959, Efon Alaaye Improvement League, the then Efon Alaaye Social Umbrella body met on the desire for establishment of an Efon Alaaye Grammar School and therefore sought partnership of the three main Christian denominations of Anglican, Catholic and the Christ Apostolic Church.

Record also had it that the church leaders initially agreed and were optimistic to start the Efon-Alaaye Grammar School, but Christ Apostolic Church was more ready to bell the cat based on its large followership in the Community. The Christ Apostolic Church started raising fund from Church members to commence the school from 28th January, 1960. It has to be put on record that CAC Grammar School was first Secondary to be established in 1960, Efon High School was established in 1977, CAC Babalola Memorial Grammar School came into being in 1979, Anglican and Catholic Secondary Schools were established in 1980.

Dr. then Mr. Bolarinwa Balogun became the pioneer Head teacher, Class teacher and House Master of the School. Mr. Balogun kick started the School with 30 pioneer pupils on Monday, 28th January, 1960, while the other teachers joined him. He left the school in April 1960 in pursuance of further studies. Mr. E. M. Ogunma noted for proudly displaying his B.A., B.Coms and Higher Diploma in Education Certificates became the first substantive Principal on the 19th of May, 1960, while Chief M.A. Dada eventually took over from him in 1961.The first and take-off site of the then Efon Alaaye Grammar School was the defunct Local Authority Primary School at Ita-Osun Area, along Efon Alaaye-Erinmo-Ilesha road and the School moved to its present Permanent site at Ita-Odo under the Principalship of late Chief M. A. Dada between 1962-1963.

Now, the assignment given to me by the President General of this Association is: Alumnus: Rediscovering Your Essence and I will begin by interpreting this to be “The Essence/Importance or Roles of Old Students Association in the Development of a School”. ALUMNI according to the Oxford Dictionary is an Association of former pupils or students especially of a particular School, College or University with common interest , existing as a result of their affiliation to an institution where they used to be students. The classic definition of alumnus is a graduate or former student of specific School, College or University. Different Institutions develop their own definitions of what alumnus means, such as: Some restrict the term to graduate Others widen the definition of alumnus to include all former students (even those who failed to finish), retired staff and other associates. Alumni are non-governmental organization that could advice and compliment the efforts of stakeholders in revamping the educational activities of an institution. The alumni needs to know what needs to be done to revamp the education system, ways to improve, what is being done, where to implement new policies and project. Alumni organize social events, publish newsletters or magazines, and raise funds for the organisation. Alumni could provide a variety of benefits and services that help alumni maintain connections to their educational institution and fellow graduates. Alumni are in better position to identify why some things we do work better than others by showing us when they work, and what elements in them work best.The roles of Old Students Association of institution cannot be over-emphasized, moreso that Alumni have the potentials to be the most loyal and generous supporter of the school because without strong alumni relations, our prospect pool will be significantly reduced and our chances of significant fundraising success will be compromised.

Importane of Alumni Relations:
We need to understand that Alumni relation is an important part of an institution for the purpose of advancement activities for many reasons including: Alumni are an institution’s most loyal supporters in fund raising projects generating invaluable word-of-mouth marketing among their social and professional networks. Alumni have unique roles to play in the life of an institution. By engaging alumni, an institution can continue to benefit from their skills, models for current students and are often well placed to offer practical support to students as they start their careers. Alumni are often in the position to engage the expertise of the institution in their professional lives. For sure, our alumni are our international ambassadors. They take their knowledge of our institution to their hometowns, countries and into their professional and social networks. Dear alumni Sirs & Mas, in the past, alumni relations or engagements all over tended to be treated as a stand-alone activity divorced from advancement activities. There and then, the practice of College Old Boys and Old Girls Associations recognizing, honouring and celebrating only those who attained political, professional or material status in life as was selective and discriminatory, then the rich old boys or girls came to show-off and the poor old boys or girls are intimidated. Nowadays, Alumni Association are more humane, and spiritual with appreciation of those among us whom were once our childhood colleagues but unable to rise to the material heights of life, old boys and old girls Association are now treated as re-union of souls to recount the good old days of brotherly or sisterly unconditional love and celebrate the wrinkles, baldness and the grey hairs though coloured by some of us to make our mileage. It is now a meeting point to recall history with jokes, smiles and prayers for all. It is now an avenue to recognize, honour as well as help those who couldn’t make it as much in life.

Inspite of the fact that fingers are not equal and life has been good to some, we haven’t and should not let those attainments kill that comradely spirit we shared in our classrooms and hostels as we were all unaware of what life has for us in the future we now live.

More than the aforesaid, it is noteworthy that memories and in particular, childhood memories are the priceless of all alma mater. School life was our raw and innocent stage in life before we became processed and possessed. We all need to maintain a positive relationship with our alumni, so that the messages they share about our institution will also be positive and current. If the relationship between the alumni and our institution stalls when we leave campus, our knowledge of our activities and achievements will no longer evolve. The messages shared with people will be out-of-date and could reflect poorly on the progress the institution has since achieved. We need to maintain and sustain communication channels with our alumni to be able to keep them informed of our achievements and make them part of our institution’s future, not just its past. It’s an indelible fact to know that, good alumni relations no doubt benefits alumni as well as the institutions. If we support our alumni in their professional and personal lives through activities such as the facilitation of social and professional networks activities and negotiated benefits with third.-party suppliers, we are likely to be our loyal life-long supporters.

Our support may also help our alumni achieve positions of success and influence, which will in turn benefit our institution as we begin to give back. We all need to agree with the fact that Alumni helps the institutions to become bigger, stronger and to become successful and thus, enhancing the value of their own products. We need to know that meaningful connections among a community of students and alumni can facilitate relationships and provide comprehensive career development by merging career services and alumni services. Alumni’s good relationship with students of the institution will be a tool to exploring career options and simply want to know more about the line of work, while others will be interested in learning how to leverage their skills and talents into a career in their specific field.Talented alumni will likely have a wealth of experience and skills to share with current students via talks and newsletters in certain cases, this could go even further with alumni offering to practically support students in work placements and as well help them launch their career or their various positive ambitions. Alumni also donate their valuable time to offer career support to current students through innovative schemes such as accredited professional, mentoring programme, work shadowing and professional networking opportunities. These enhance the students’ experience and give them that competitive edge in today’s tough job market. In a nutshell, the role of Alumni could not be over emphasized; they could be vanguard and champions for educational development. They could leverage on existing efforts, form select committees and critical mass of Alumni members who are committed to the ideals of the association to update the database regularly, set target and milestones for improvement, network/partnership with other Alumni and organize events as appropriate to revamp the institution’s education system. Alumni could leverage on social media and network to connect the institution to global knowledge and information.The main roles of Alumni in revamping education system in the institution are to mobilize resources, reorganize and appreciate distinguished individuals in their specific areas of endeavor and for value added contributions, demand for accountability and provide appropriate incentive to improved equitable access, quality of teaching, learning and research through partnership. Quoting from the word of J.F. Kennedy, the former American President in his submission: “The success of any school can be measured by the contribution the Alumni made to our national life” and realizing the many contributions made by many of the old students of CAPOSTO to the success of the school since her inception in 1960 to date. I therefore urge all of us the Old Students of this great alma mater to keep giving back to CAPOSTO in her upward drive to further educational development of the institution.Thanks for your rapt attention.

Prof. Adio Folayan,Dean, College of Health Sciences, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State.