The Queen's College
(QC) Annual Speech and Prize-Giving Ceremony held on Thursday May 12
2011 at the College Hall on the premises of the school in Yaba, Lagos.
I arrived around 2pm during a spirited Atilogwu dance that meant I had just missed the National Anthem and Opening Prayer.
As for invited
guests, the chairperson was not present but sent a representative,
while the special guests of honour also had to cancel at the
last-minute due to flight delays and work emergencies.
The former principals were in attendance; you can rely on them.
The guest speaker was Dayo Olumide Benjamin-Ajayi.
She was lively, in
the tradition of the Black American Baptist preachers. Her performance
began with her kneeling down, stilettoes and all, to greet ‘our
mothers.'
She spoke of each person as ‘unstoppable' and taught about the Queen inside each one of us.
A Queen's College
Old Girl herself, she had enthralling stories from her days stomping
the same grounds, navigating some of the same challenges that the girls
might face today, including the temptation to cheat, the fear of public
speaking, and uncertainty about the future.
Before the guest
speaker took the stage, the principal gave her report which showed, as
usual, a very high pass rate at the West Africa Examination Council
(WAEC) Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).
93.5 percent of students had credit and above in English. 98 percent had five credits and above.
However, only 68 percent had five credits and above including Maths and English.
And the problem was with Mathematics - too many students still do poorly in Mathematics.
As a lifelong
math-lover, I would like to offer my services to remedy this. The
highest fail rates in SSCE in 2010 were in Mathematics, Accounting
(each with five percent fail) and then Hausa and Yoruba (each with
about 20 percent fail).
Other than these, most subjects had at or near 100 percent pass rate (by pass I mean ‘P' and above.)
As usual, the
results in National Examination Council (NECO) were weaker than WAEC
SSCE. It is thought that students just don't pay as much attention to
the NECO exam as they do the other.
I attended Speech Day last year as the guest speaker. See July 2010 at www.lifelib.blogspot.com for
the speech. There was an utterly
attentive young student in the front row during my speech, and later in
the afternoon. She turned out to be the highest-scoring student in her
class.
This Prize-Giving
day, Phinuella was back, and she carted off so many prizes that there
were jokes in the audience about her getting a
Ghana-must-go to hold
them. Currently in SS3, she had the highest SS2 score in English
Language, Igbo Language, Further Mathematics, Physics, Biology,
Geography, Economics, and Music. At least she ‘allowed' another student
to take the Mathematics prize, while another daring colleague snatched
the Chemistry prize.
In QC tradition, we
love watching the superstars at Speech Day, but not only in the core
subjects. The choir was lovely, but would not match the angelic vocal
performances of Lara Bajomo (now the famous Lara George) back in the
nineties. The band was raucous fun, and the traditional dances were
very good. I think the 21st century dancers beat us - the 90s girls -
not only in costuming, but also in beauty and gait. I noticed that
there was art and freer expression everywhere, likely reflecting the
current principal's love of art.
Mrs Ogunnaike, the
PQC (Principal, Queen's College) was my beloved art teacher. I still
remember drawing and shading this metallic flask with the correct light
and texture effects. As my art teacher, she was pretty and she was
good. She taught my little sister, who is now, finally, an artist. She
had been the art teacher (as a youth corps member) of the guest speaker
too, thirty-something years ago. Now she was the principal, seven
months running, of Queen's College and about to retire. I can't believe
that she is anything near 60 years old, and it strikes me that many of
our teachers are retirement-age but not tired. They still have a
youthful spring in their step.
Also in Queen's
College tradition, the highlight of Speech Day is the standing ovation.
It usually goes to the "Best all-round student" who is usually the girl
(now ‘Old Girl') with the best result in the last WAEC SSCE. Yetunde
Noah won that in 1993 as I watched and plotted my turn. She was a
"yellow" girl with frizzy hair and she turned up smartly for Speech Day
in a sailor-inspired suit (smart white skirt, navy blue suit top, nice
legs, frizzy hair.) Ah, yes, three years later I donned my own sailor
suit. Well, this year, the standing ovation was shared. Ayodele Kadiri
(Best all-round student in 2010 WAEC/SSCE) and Odigwe Osato (Best
all-round student).
No sailor suits this year; Speech Day is a bit more casual these days.
