CSR: ILUSEC Alumni donates classroom furniture

As part of effort to ensure that pupils of Ilupeju Secondary School, Ilupeju in Lagos State have access to tables and chairs, the school’s newly inaugurated old students’ association has donated 50 sets of classroom furniture to enhance their studies.

The gesture, according to the Principal of the school, Mrs. Elizabeth Akinola, will go a long way to solving several challenges facing the school at the moment in terms of infrastructure.

She said: “The government is doing a lot, but government cannot do it all. I give glory to God for the gesture of the alumni. We know it is not easy, it is because they put their alma mater as a priority that this is possible. We only just started meeting the alumni in March, which was the 1988 set and they immediately donated 20 sets of furniture. Now that the old students have come together as a national body, they have brought another 50 sets. This is just the beginning.”

President of the association, Mr. Idowu Oyebanjo, of the 1992 set, who was represented by the General Secretary, Mr. Gbenga Odesanya of 1995 set, said the junior and secondary arms of the school need about 800 pieces of furniture that will seat 2,400 pupils at three pupils per seat.

He said: “We have had different sets doing one thing or the other for the school, but with the establishment of the national alumni, we will be able to leverage on the potentials of the individual set to form a synergy that will produce better results as we see today.

‘’We had the inaugural meeting of the association in March with the aim of instituting the association, but seeing the state of infrastructure in the school broke our hearts and we quickly consulted the school authority for their needs in order of priority. The furniture came top on that list among other things.”

He noted that with the full function of the association, there are plans to seek the support of companies operating within and outside Ilupeju as well as government and the old students to deliver the outstanding 750 pieces of furniture by the school October 19 deadline, which is the school’s founder’s day. The project is expected to cost over N5 million.

Oyebanjo, however, charged the school authority to open a register to keep record of students given the furniture to make them accountable and teach them maintenance culture.

Pupils of the school, numbering 1022, along with their teachers were full of gratitude to the former students for donating 50 sets of dual furniture for their learning comfort.

The school’s Head boy, Paul Akinlosotu, thanked the association on behalf of the school, noting that before now, the pupils had to sit on stools and tyres, while others stood in class to receive lessons.