FEATURES: Celebrating Teachers While Alive: The IDGS 89 Set’s Style – Alhazan Abiodun

FEATURES:

Celebrating Teachers While Alive: The IDGS 89 Set’s Style – Alhazan Abiodun

It is an age-long saying that teacher’s reward is in heaven, but I have not seen anybody that has visited heaven to tell us how this special people have been honored to the measure of their values.

As an old student of Iseyin District Grammar School (IDGS) myself, I do not know how an individual can repay his or her teachers to the extent the individual will be so satisfied like he will be when he has taken good care of his own parents.

Our teachers then were our foster parents, as many of us were even given the care some parents might not give their wards at home. Imagine situations that teachers feed, cloth or even pay fees of some students who have no parents or guardians to do that for them.

In the area of students’ moral upbringing, it was the teacher, in most cases, that instilled moral discipline in the children as many parents, even while alive, shirk such responsibility.

It is on this premise that I was moved by the gesture of the IDGS 89 Set, when they set a particular day (Friday 24th June, 2021) to celebrate their teachers for being there for them while under their cares as students.

Almost all these teachers were also my teachers and I shared the emotion of giving back to these great people, that held nothing back to mold our lives for the good.

These individuals were our kings and Queens while we were learning under their cares, I remember the hard, uncompromising stand of these people on issues like absenteeism, late coming, class discipline and zero tolerance for examination malpractice. I can comfortably say that the expression ‘examination malpractice’ was not even in our consciousness then. At least I never knew it could happen until I left secondary school.

This helped my resolve to be self-reliant in the area of academic endeavors and some other resolutions about life.

I was happy to see Mr. Sulaimon Akinteye, Mr. Adediran, ‘Mama o nii gba’, Mr. Rolayo Arinola, Mr. Oladeji, Mr. Segun Akintunde, Mr. Adigun, Mr. Alarape, Mr. Kola Alhazan, Mr. Akpado, Mr. Bamidele, my sister, Alhaja Folake Babalola (nee Alhazan) among others, being so honored by the 89 set.

Apart from the fact that they were rewarded with gifts, singing their praises while they are alive, receiving accolades from the then State commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barr. Olasunkanmi Olaleye, who stood in as the State government was the icing on the cake, and a pointer to the fact that they were loved and adored by us all.

In the words of the President of the IDGS 89 set, Alhaji Aliyy Olaniyi Wahab, the alumni looked back and realized the impacts made in the lives of members and decided to celebrate these respected teachers while alive.

As important as the renovation of a block of classroom, which also house the school library and a staff room is, I saluted this set of old students for deeming it fit to celebrate teachers that taught them moral and academic understanding, which laid a solid foundation for whatever they eventually became in life.

This gesture, when emulated by students currently in schools and those that have graduated, would make the teaching profession more respected, while practitioners will be willing to give more into this most revered and ancient job.