•Why It Remains The Best Among Equals
If you are looking for a good educational foundation for your child, Triplecross School is a name that readily comes to mind, especially those that live around Ojodu/Ogba Axis. Located at Wempo road, Ogba, Lagos.
The vision that was given birth to by God through Mrs. Olufunke Gesinde 23 years ago, has over the years carved a niche for itself in the educational sector as everyone now knows that Triplecross school has a history of excellent academic performance.
In the last 23years, according to the Head Teacher of Triplecross Nursery & Primary, Mr. Bola Kujimiyo, “Triplecross Schools has achieved major milestones in the 3 domains of Education, which are the Affective, Cognitive and Psychomotor domain.
In the Affective domain, we’ve been able to shape the character of our pupils to the extent that they are able to maintain a balanced behaviour in their generation. They have been able to behave well by exhibiting agape love, demonstrating peace with everyone, showing meekness and gentleness among peer, training their minds and exhibiting self-control.
Talking of the standard that stands them out, Mr. Kujimiyo says “we run Montessori curriculum in our pre-school and Nursery sections and conventional curriculum in our Primary which has helped us to achieve a lot. In the area of Phsycho-motor domain, we develop a child’s psyche in other to help him/her. Therefore we produce a Total Child through the 3 domains of education the cognitive, the affective and the psychomotor.
Taking the great vision further, Triplecross High was also birthed 10 years ago with an objective to provide students opportunity of an education with a higher quality. Others include:
-to equip students to live effectively in the modern world of Science and Technology;
-to develop and project Nigerian culture, arts and language as well as the Universal Heritage;
-to raise a generation of people who can think for themselves, respect the view and feelings of others, respect the dignity of labour and appreciate the schools’ core values so as to enable them live and function as good citizens of Nigeria and the world;
-to inspire students with a desire for achievement and self-improvement both at school and later on in life
At Triplecross, the vision is to be a model school with high academic and moral standard, which promotes education for self-reliance and respect for cultural heritage. While their mission is to create a learning environment which reflects culture heritage and to produce Nigerians and non-Nigerians who will become agents of change to buttress the vision and mission God has committed into her hand in this interview, Mrs. Olufunke Gesinde speaks exclusively with City People’s Sunday Adigun on how she started Triplecross School 23 years ago, the method of teaching she employed and what prospective parents should expect from Triplecross School.
As the Proprietress/Founder of Triplecross school, how did the journey start?
By the Grace of God it all started more than 30 years ago when I had my children.
I never had house helps so I had to take them to Daycare Centres. So, whenever it was time for them to go I had difficulties finding daycare centres that met my needs. So I asked myself if it is impossible for anyone to set up a place where a parent could put his or her child and have peace of mind. Because even with my children in the Daycare, I used to come during office hours to check on them to ensure that they were well taken care of and that was when I started thinking about setting up a school.
What were the challenges you experienced at the initial stage?
The first challenge I had was that, I wasn’t a trained teacher, I knew that was a deficiency. As such, I had to get myself trained. Luckily I was abroad, so I had the opportunity to study at a school that trains people to set up and run schools inclusive of Daycare Centres. I had to learn about the different Methodologies and after that I obtained a post-graduate Diploma in Child Care Management.
I also had to undergo training in the Montessori method of teaching from which I obtained another Diploma. With that said, the main challenge for most schools is finance for you to run a very good school you have to have access to a lot of money. There’s nobody who doesn’t want to have a very good school but most people are limited by the founds they have access to, that is the main challenge.
Another challenge that face school is qualified personnel. A lot of Nigerians went to school but a lot of them are not employable and even with the ones who are, you have to be on their neck to ensure that they do what they are supposed to do. And you have to do training, monitoring and mentoring for them to be able to get whatever you want achieved so those are the main challenges.
In spite of all these challenges, what has kept you going?
The love I have for the job. The passion. I started out actually with Daycare & Nursery; Taking care of babies and of course once they start walking, helping them and getting them ready for primary school. But I discovered that I loved the job. I enjoyed the job and I used to stay in school till 6-7pm. I have stayed overnight in school before decorating for a new session. For you to keep going in this job, you need a lot of passion.
You have to love what you are doing. Another thing that makes me happy is when I am given a child who has a challenge and I’m able to sit down and map out a way out for this child and with my staff we are able to sit down, with the help of God, not only to turn that child to a good child but to an excellent child and that we have done by the help of God many times.
We have so many children who came in challenged: not physically challenged but academically but who have turned out to be excellent children at the end of the day. So when you see such children, the joy that you have over them is not quantifiable and it makes you want to do more.
Triplecross school is well known for its high academic standard. How has the school been able to maintain this high academic standard over the years?
The first thing I will say is the help of the Holy Spirit. God has been with us like I said, when we started we were just doing our own thing. Because I studied about how to set up and run a School in the United States, I had an idea of what I wanted. When I was coming back to Nigeria, I believed that I would make a difference and was determined to be better.
So I gave everything and God helped me. When we started, we started like other schools but each year we strive to improve the standard of the children to help them. By the time I went for the Montessori course, I discovered that the course was a fantastic course and it made the school even better because I had to go for the course myself and I had A in the course because I was really serious and I really wanted to know it. So I also discovered that Montessori method of teaching was a very effective way to make the children read very fast and God sent me some very good staff.
What other methods of teaching employed in Triplecross school and what are the benefits?
Well, we have a combination of methods that we use because every method of teaching has advantages and disadvantages but we discovered that the Montessori Method is the best in the first few years of life. The first 5-6 years. So as much as possible we apply the method in our lower classes but then we introduced the conventional method in the advanced classes and we discovered over the years that a combination of the two is actually better than either of the two.
There is a third school within the Triple Cross family called First ages Nursery & Primary School. Why does it bear a different name?
We merged with that school. We discovered that they had their own clientele and set procedures. We did not want this to change. So we decided to let the school run the way it is. The school and Triplecross School are almost the same now. It’s a very good school too because we run the same curriculum and the management is also the same. Also the Head of the school there is doing a very good job and the school is running well.
So, we didn’t see the need to change the name.
What should prospective parents expect from Tripplecross schools in the near future?
Well, in the near future we will keep on improving the school because you can never say that you have arrived. There is always room for improvement. We’re always striving to do better and better. We have to continue to work on the children. Until we get there, the Lord will continue to help us.
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