BHOSA Worldwide Alumnus Boosts Students’ Morale With Ultra-Modern Tech Lab
By Simeon OSAJIE
An Alumnus of Baptist High School Old Students Association (BHOSA) Worldwide, Class of 1986, Mr. Samson Koyonda has donated Technology Laboratory to the school management.
The lab worth over N25,000,000 (Twenty Five Million naira) named after Deacon J. O. Koyonda who was a great father, teacher, journalist and a loving husband, had a great passion for education was commissioned today, 1st July, 2024 by Edo State Commissioner for Digital Economy, Science & Technology, Engr. Ogbeide Ifaluyi Isibor.
Engr. Isibor who revealed that Edo State governnor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki have love and affection when seeing people investing in digitization of education disclosed that Edo State has been ranked as number one in ICT in Nigeria, Edo State is also number one in digital transformation and Edo State is also number one in digital governance.
“Now that we are seeing digital technology lab being built not just only by Edo State government but by private individual and alumni associations, it is what commendable. I want to thank the donor Mr. Koyonda for this amazing facility,” he said.
While admonishing the school management to have a very robust digital in training of ICT in the State, Engr. Isibor disclosed that Edo state government has trained over 70,000 Edo residents in all kind of digital skills, from AI, Cyber Security, Product Management, etc. and promised to collaborate with Baptist High School management to train some of the students and staff in the area of modern digitization.
Earlier in his welcome address, the donor, Mr. Samson Koyonda disclosed that the desire to make a different is what motivated him to embark in such gesture so as to contribute to the future generation of our students.
According to him, one of the problem we have in the society is lack of desire to leave a selfless life, that you cannot have everything, whatever you acquired make it have an impact.
“This little Technology Laboratory here is a testament to that. One child, two children, five children that would come out of this lab with knowledge that empowers all of us. There might be lab scientist, there might be next professor of chemistry and that would enriches all of us, that was the philosophy behind this.
“The users should have the mind that this is a stepping stone. This is just an initial attempt to ensure that we have a competitive advantage, the world is very small by given them this kind of technology, they are in a position to compete with the children abroad because they are not just competing for jobs in Lagos to Abuja, they are competing with children from the Philippines, from Kenya, from South Korea, but if we have this one here they can reach the world. So I want them to know that they are authorize with what is limited by their location. That is the goal,” he added.
In his welcome address, BHOSA President Worldwide, Mr. Innocent Ekuase said one of the philosophy we imbibe as old students is to generally help in the development of the school.
“We also want to be part of the continuous development of this school. We want to assist the school management to improve the academic standard of this school, we want to support the school in infrastructural development, we also at some point interact with the principle especially some of the staff on how best we can come in. We want them to ensure that the discipline we enjoyed, the integrity that we enjoyed as students is being kept and held on to tendentiously.
“We want to also ensure that the excellent we enjoyed in our time is kept or even improve on to today. All these things we leant here through our various teachers, principals as at that time, and one thing that is still in us that are very strong was the motto of BHS. So as that motto is still on it is education for selfless service.
“So, we were not surprise when Mr. Samson Koyonda came up with this, because his goals is to give because he has be thought that. This technology laboratory if you ask me is the best in Nigeria. We are not relying on BEDC rather we have an alternative power supply running for 24 hours. In the course of building a technology lab, we have software for teaching, software for training and software for learning by students.
“Also, we have given an interrupted internet subscription of about 5 years to the school.
“I want to also thank the management of the school for their excellent work they are doing. We will continue to support the school because that is the training that we had,” he said.
