Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Abeokuta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (November 2007)

Contents

[edit] Background

As at 1990, it became evident that the children of personnel seeking for admission in the only secondary school of the Nigerian Navy at Ojo were becoming too large for the school. Many States were contacted by the Nigerian Navy on assistance for a site. The then Governor of Ogun State, a naval personnel himself, Navy Captain Mohammed Lawal, invited the NN to consider a location of the defunct St Leo's Teachers' Training College at Ibara Abeokuta (www.nnssab.net)on a hilly Onikolobo site. This premises had been abandoned and merely serve as a route to the Catholic Compound and was also used for administering a newly conceived secondary school in that name. The NN considered the site and found it suitable. A team of officers headed by Commodore SO Lawuyi, the Chief of Naval Education, Lt Cdr SEA Olamilokun, SO 1 Education at Naval Headquarters, SLt Nelson Demebide and a civilian architect, were sent to receive the compound. The team took inventories of the facilities at the site and made recommendations for its renovations.

[edit] Historical Perspective

Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Abeokuta was founded on 2 Feb 1991 and is sited at the former St Leo's Teachers' College at Ibara Abeokuta, Ogun State of Nigeria. At the handing over ceremony on that day, the Ogun State Military Governor, Navy Captain Oladeinde Joseph, commended the Nigerian Navy for bringing a model secondary school to Abeokuta. The then Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Murtala Nyako implored the school to train the children who would excel in all.

[edit] First Students

The school started with 426 students admitted into Junior Secondary 1 and Junior Secondary School 2. The pioneer commandant was Lieutenant Commander SEA Olamilokun while the deputy commandant was Lieutenant SJ Ajiboye. Many of the pioneering staff were Mrs OA Okunneye, Miss Nwogbo, Mr Osinowo and Mr Agoreyo. Others members of staff were SLt Chukwu, Mrs Salako, Mrs Ajimati and Mr Adesanya.

The students of the school at inception were mainly freshly admitted JS 1 students and boys of NNSS Ojo who were all transferred to NNSS Abeokuta since NNSS Ojo was reverted to a purely Girls' school. The first date of any student at school was 3 Mar 01. NNSS Abeokuta is an all boys all boarding school with mild military activities, mainly drills.

The Ogun State Government, under the administration of Navy Captain Mohammed Lawal, initiated the complete renovation of all the existing buildings and the major roads in the compound. It also provided an alternative bye pass to the priest house.

The NN appointed the first commandant to the school on 20 Nov 90. The new commandant, Lt Cdr SEA Olamilokun, assumed duties and moved to the compound with his key staff officers. On February 2 1991, the new Governor of the State, Governor Deinde Joseph handed over the school formally to the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral MAH Nyako. It is instructive to note that many senior officers were present at the handing over ceremony. The Governor of Oyo State, Col Adisa who was present promised to build a Guard House for the School, while the Ogun State Government promised to refurbish 3 vehicles for use of the school and refurbish its administrative block. Navy Captain Olukoya, the Governor of Ondo State promised to donate a staff car for the commandant and provide a bus for the students. All the promises were fulfilled.

[edit] Current State

Now the school has a student strength of 1060, these pupils are called "navy boys". The students are divided into four houses:

  • Blue house (Aikomu house)
  • Green house (Nyako house)
  • Purpule house (Koshoni house)
  • Red house (Omotsola house)

These houses are all named after famous navy officers of the country, each house has 4 divisions in them so that there are a total of 16 divisions in the whole school (divisions "ALPHA" to "PAPA"). The youngest students start at the first set of four divisions and as they progress in their academic years, they also progress in division groups.

The daily routines of the students are as follows:- 05:30 - time to muster for daily assignments (chores or otherwise) 05:45 - students go for physical training (involves mandatory jogging for miles) 07:00 - students go to the dining hall (which students call "galley") for breakfast 08:00 - parade time which involves flying the flag, messages from the commandant and marchpast 08:45 - lesson begin 14:00 - lessons end 14:05 - lunch time 15:00 - siesta and guard officers patrol 16:00 - afternoon prep (for homeworks and class assignments) 17:00 - student's free time, training, activities, laundry or labour duties 19:00 - dinner time 20:00 - evening prep 21:00 - end of prep for js1 - js3 (alpha - hotel divisions) 21:30 - end of prop for ss1 - ss3 (india - papa divisions) lights out for js1 - js3 22:00 - lights out the whole school.

(schedules and activities differ according to days of the week for different year groups and divisions)

Nigerian Navy Secondary School (a.k.a NNSS) focuses mainly on hardwork and discipline which is the school motto and the students believe firmly in the phrase "onward together".

[edit] Entry Requirements

For admission into NNSS, applicants need to be of above average intellectual capabilities: they must excel in their entrance examinations and interview which test on mathematical, linguistic, structural logic (quantitative) and analytical (qualitative) abilities. NNSS is known for producing all around best students which either follow in military order or lead civilian lives.