King's College is a household name in Nigeria; A citadel of learning that was once the pride of the then colony. Though it was established after seven others, it outstripped them having been patterned to match the priceless quality of education the then missionaries sought to establish in the country. Henry Rawlings Carr was the grand architect of this. He persuaded the then London Board of Education to build the school in other to stand as a supplement education initiative of missionary societies and a reckoning force in academic excellence with the King's College in London. The efforts, quality time, resources and manpower that the colonial masters put into the establishment of the institution although for their selfish gains, gave birth to most of the best brains the country has ever had. The Soyinkas, Adenugas, Sanusis, Enahoros, Davies, Herbert Mills, Macauleys, J.C Vaughans, and...of course, the list is inexhaustible...are all living testimonies. The transparent scholarships on free tuition and annual grant of 6pounds to deserving beneficiaries, donation of free academic materials to the poor were just few incentives that ensured students drilled themselves for only the best.
108years after, the school is still standing; better off with "seemingly" state of the art academic complex, quality academic equipment and one of the best conducive learning environments in the country. For the quality of students produced now, can we most assuredly preach the same sermon? With the encounter I had this past week with Tolu and Daniel, both SS3 students of the well revered academic hub, I honestly doubt if my answer would be even in the weakest affirmation. For students wanting to sit for their GCE not to know anything about Parts of Speech apart from the normal verbal rhetorical rhyme of the meaning of noun, pronoun and verb, and the simple test of SIMPLIFY in maths (two subjects that are the basis for learning others) pushed me to ask what they've been doing for the past five years of being in the school. Anyway, I can't just make conclusions with such an infinitesimal number, I just hope this isn't the fate of many in the school I most revere.


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