The chairman of this occasion, distinguished guest speaker, parents, teachers,
students of Whitesands School, ladies and gentlemen:
Welcome to this year’s Graduation and Prize-giving Day.
Today we are celebrating the graduating students who for six years have been
under our tutelage. We hope that you not only have passed through the school
but also, that the school has passed through you.
Today we also give recognition to the well deserving students of the lower years
who for their excellent performance will be given awards.
I take this opportunity to congratulate everyone, firstly the graduating students
since today marks another milestone in your life, the end of your secondary
schooling and the beginning of a new page in your life which hopefully will be a
brighter one. I particularly like the “beginning” aspect of today’s event. This is
probably the reason why in my own high school, today’s event is called
commencement exercise (following the American tradition).
I also congratulate the teachers and other staff of the school who, all this while,
have been the instruments of the school to implement our educational
philosophy. Last but not the least, I congratulate the parents who have, against
all odds, perseveringly shared in our belief on that the task of education, of
upbringing of your children is first and foremost the task of parents, the school
taking a complimentary role.
At this point, let me attempt to give an account of this year’s academic session.
We had classes normally on all the days assigned in the school calendar since
we started the session on 14 September, except perhaps on those days at the
beginning of
the
second
term
when
the
Federal Government
made
announcement on the closure of schools due to the voters’ registration exercise.
After the air of confusion got cleared, we had an uninterrupted academic work.
We conducted punctually all continuous assessments, end-of-term and external
examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and IGCSE for senior school and
NECO and Lagos State for junior school. Because of the support of competent
staff, I must admit that academics have been the least of my worry. I have
always been confident that our students would excel and will receive the reward
for their effort. They will be able to defend their C, B or A that they get in exam
because they worked for it – they have been trained in the atmosphere of
honesty and transparency.
Side by side with intense academic work, we had many extra and co-curricular
activities. Almost on a weekly basis we organized sports activities involving our
students and other schools. We had a very successful Inter-house Athletics
Competition.
We also had a number of events all organized mainly by our
students: the Foundation Day celebration in October, Family Day in December
and the Children’s Day in May. We had a very successful drama presentation of
Chinua Achebe's world renowned work, Things Fall Apart. For the first time this
year we are sending a handful of our students to the World Youth Day taking
place in Madrid Spain.
We also spent time and effort in providing staff the adequate on-the-job training.
This year our science teachers participated actively in the Science Teachers
Association of Nigeria annual conference in Jos. We sent two of our staff to a
week-long quality assurance training in UK. We also invited facilitators from
Fomento de Centros de Ensenanza, our sister NGO in Spain which owns some
38 schools like Whitesands, to handle a week-long workshop for our teachers-incharge or TIC. It was a great experience for our staff and at the same time an
occasion for thanksgiving since they congratulated us for the gains that
Whitesands has achieved in such a short time. We will soon engage a handful of
staff for a Family Advisory Workshop jointly handled by Fomento and a local
NGO, the Institute for Work and Family Integration (IWFI). This year we made
another first: we hosted two persons for a week-long internship at Whitesands.
They are those who will start another school for boys with the same educational
philosophy as Whitesands in Enugu.
We continue to provide the necessary attention to parents. Aside from Family
Orientation Courses, our sister organization the Nigerian Association for Family
Development (NAFAD), also organized for our parents, the first time this year,
age-specific course for pre-adolescents as well as the first steps course for
parents with children between zero and four years old.
We have organized
parents fora and parents meetings on class basis. Our advisory system, a main
differentiating pillar in our educational philosophy, is as strong as ever.
We made efforts and continue to do so in providing our students better facilities.
We are now enjoying the comfort of this multipurpose court. Some of you will
remember that I have spoken several times about the project in the past five
years. We thank God that now it is a reality.
If you look to your right, you will see another construction going on. It is the
Phase 4 building consisting of more classrooms and laboratories for the senior
school. Hopefully we will embark on the construction of the extension of the
dining hall, the atrium and the administration block immediately after the
completion of the Phase 4 building.
This will bring all building project in
Whitesands School to a close, at least for the foreseeable future.
My job today is incomplete without some words to our graduates. In the past six
years you must have experienced both the good and the not-so-pleasant aspects
of the school. Regarding the second point, I would like you to leave with this
explanation: Your stay in the school is more than just learning Maths, English
and Science. The school curriculum, the atmosphere, the rules and regulations,
and all our operations and processes have been designed to give you the chance
to develop your power of discernment: that is, to recognize the difference
between the good, true and beautiful from the evil, false and sordid. We also
tried to develop in you that historical and analytical mind: to see that your
present actions are tied to past causes and will have future implications. You will
agree with me that you were brought up in the school in an atmosphere of
freedom. I now encourage you to maintain that habit of reflecting on your actions
and free decisions especially the consequences of those actions to the lives of
other people. Simply put, always look back and think ahead before launching
into action. And finally let your conscience rule your actions. Keep that habit of
asking yourself in situations of moral choice, “How does this meet up with God's
commandments and my duties to society?” Remember it is part and parcel of our
school mission to raise each one of you up to be a responsible competent and
morally upright gentleman. If you manage to do that, then the time you spent
here would not have been in vain.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the eleventh year of Whitesands history. This is
the sixth graduation day. I invite everyone to join me to thank God for the fruitful
eleven years. Looking forward we see challenges but at the same time a lot of
opportunities.
I count on your cooperation as we strive to take this beloved
institution to greater heights.
Thank you and good morning.
Dr. Lorenzo Manuel David