Rector’s 2023/2024 graduation Speech

Right now, we are at the brink of the future. It’s not a pipe dream anymore. It begins today, it begins now, it begins here. I am honored to have the chance to welcome everyone present here today, July 27th, 2024, to the 16th convocation ceremony of the school to celebrate the grandaunts of 2023/2024.

My appreciation goes to our honorable Chairman, distinguished guests, highly esteemed parents, families, the Director and Management of JC Best Schools, my colleagues, grandaunts, friends, and well-wishers. We hereby express our gratitude to God as well as everyone who helped make today possible and so exceptional. We equally appreciate those viewing us online. Today, we’ve come together to appreciate you, the grandaunts for the fantastic work you’ve done, and wish you well as you embark on the next chapter of your life.

I cannot help but express gratitude and congratulations to all parents and guardians for their tremendous and unwavering commitment to supporting their wards. We are merely expanding on the foundations you set for your kids at home. According to experts in the field of early childhood education, the early experiences a kid receives from their parents, guardians, and their surrounding environment provide, the groundwork for their future development. These reasons are why, I implore you to spend more time with your wards when they are at home during the holidays and to make sure they have a stress-free, trouble-free, and educationally interesting hobby for their ideal physical and psychological growth. Undoubtedly, some parents have consistently handled this role carefully and with great care.

We also want to express our gratitude for entrusting us throughout the years with the safety, upbringing, and development of your wards. As a mother of adult children, I can relate to the happiness that is currently filling your hearts. God will honor you for giving your all to provide these kids the finest life possible; you are the real stars, and your efforts have not been in vain. There are stages for our departing students, just as there are in the cycle of life. These phases involve obligations and demands, all of which have a cost. You paid a premium to master the hustles and bustles of secondary school when you were a guest here. You overcame the comfort zone of peer pressure, academic rigor that was challenging, behavioral change that was dynamic, and a test of discipline that was difficult. You’ve demonstrated your grit, desire, excellence, and drive by being here.

We celebrate with you our beloved grandaunts on your success in the just concluded UTME, where we recorded a 100 percent pass with some outstanding performances. We are optimistic about the success of the just concluded WASSCE and ongoing NECO examinations. The culture for academic excellence and a strong moral foundation has been inbibed by JC- Best Schools. You now love learning both on your own and with others, thanks to our efforts. You will face difficulties no matter where you go or what you do. What I want from each of you, is that you face those obstacles head-on, with your hearts open and your heads held high. Simply trying to get by in life is insufficient, that doesn’t help the world to advance. You must strive for perfection in all of your endeavors; this applies to both big and minor tasks.

Be positive and constructive in all of your endeavors. You are now more capable of originality, inventiveness, and creativity thanks to your secondary education. So, keep pushing and pursue your careers while also being daring, responsible, and courteous. According to American historian John Meacham; “We try, we fail, and then we try again.’’ Progress is only possible through such hardships, after all.

To our dear teachers and faculty members, this graduation, is as much for the kids and their parents as it is for you. They have come a long way thanks to the years of your labor, and now another phase will take care of them. Be strong! Be honest! Look at these young adults; without your involvement, their life stories would be incomplete. You did a good job! JC Best appreciates you, these graduands appreciate you and I appreciate you.

To our distinguished parents present, daddies and mummies, we love to appreciate you for your unconditional, selfless, unwavering support and love to your wards which have been too much but worth it with the kind of result that was produced at the end of the day. The fact that JC-Best Schools International again has achieved a 100% pass rate in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination administered by JAMB over the past five years, with 10% of students achieving scores above 300 annually, demonstrates one of our core values; which is to vigorously encourage “high pressure, high performance.” without excluding God in all our endeavors.

With great excitement, we announce that the school is implementing the “Teach Topic Deep (TTD) strategy” in its tutorial activities. With a focus on in-depth comprehension and subject mastery, this cutting-edge method makes sure that our students have a thorough understanding of every subject. We will be matching our curriculum with the WAEC, NECO, JAMB, and Cambridge syllabi for pupils & students in Basics 4 through 9. The goal of this alignment is to give our students the best possible preparation and the knowledge and abilities they need to succeed in their upcoming international and local examinations. Furthermore, we have completely incorporated technology into our tutorial delivery. For our students & pupils, this integration will improve the learning outcome and make it more efficient and interesting. We are confident that these adjustments will have a major positive impact on our students & pupils, giving them a strong educational foundation and setting them up for academic success.

The school has embraced innovation, such as the usage of virtual smart instruction, to improve learning. By removing the wrong people from the boat and bringing in ‘A’ grade teachers whose expertise and input would ensure improved results for our wards, the school has also put the ‘Good to Great’ philosophy into practice. The setting up of a 1,000-capacity CBT laboratory to hold internal and external exams as well as regular Jamb practice and tutorials for our wards is one of the major infrastructural projects the school has wholeheartedly embraced. The school has setup CCTV surveillance cameras in the classrooms and strategic areas. The school has also dispatched more skilled security staff in light of the elevated degree of insecurity in the nation.

At the juncture, we would want to sincerely thank God Almighty, without whom we could not have made the progress we have made it thus far. Once again, to my colleagues and the management team, thank you for a job well done! Focusing on who you become rather than what you get is more important when it comes to achieving your goals.

Finally, let’s joyfully congratulate the graduands of JC Best Schools International class of 2024.

THANKS.

Pastor (Mr)s Edna Kingsley Onuorah

 Rector JC Best Schools International