AGAINST THE NORM: WHY I RUN A SCHOOL FOR ALMOST FREE IN AGEGE – TAIWO OLASUNKANMI
By Oki Samson
The Proprietor of SAMDOK Private School and Convener of Agege Renewed Hope Movement, Mr. Taiwo Olasunkanmi, a low-cost school but with international standard based in Agege, Lagos has explained his drive and passion for running school business against the norm of charging cutthroat prices and sending schoolchildren away if their parents are unable to pay. He also gleefully shared the positive outcomes which have emerged from his adopted model. He made this known in an exclusive chat with Trek Africa Newspaper.
Speaking on his background, the born and bred son of Agege, Mr. Taiwo Olasunkanmi Samuel revealed: ‘I was born in Agege, Gbogunlere precisely, in isale oja and I also schooled in Agege. I attended Central Primary School, Oniwaya, and after my first school leaving certificate, I proceeded to Anwarul Islam College in Agege before I proceeded for my ND and HND in Electrical Electronic in Yaba College of Technology.
On the school initiative, Mr. Taiwo said: ‘My motivation point is that, “the biggest investment in life is to invest in human being” so when I see children roaming about, I have the passion to keep them busy and give them quality education. That is why I am propelled to run a school that is a low-cost school and those that cannot even afford the low cost are given scholarship so that they will be educated and be of help to their own community tomorrow. A child you do not train will be a nuisance to the community. We have to sponsor and look for sponsors for the scholarships of those children in Agege. We have partnerships with NGOs and individuals to bring support to these children.’
Casting his mind back to how he started the school and the challenges he has encountered in the journey, Mr. Taiwo Olasunkanmi hinted: ‘I think in 1995, I start my own lesson in Agege and by 2002 we converted it to a school called Grace Children School. At the point of registration, we had to change it to SAMDOK Private School. The school is a low-cost school that helps the less-privileged children whose parents cannot afford high-end schools to come and still get quality education. Of course there are some children that were given scholarships even till today. We give children scholarship that we know that their parents could not afford to send them to school with assistance of NGOs that we solicit for their assistance.’
‘Many of those children today are in different human endeavors. We have some of them who are out of the country and we have some of them who are doing well in various fields of life.’
‘I have precious memories from these children. First of all, I was so much excited when one of my pupils then became the senior prefect in Government College in Agege. I was so much excited when one of my pupils who went to UNILAG came out with first class. He did his Masters degree in University of Ibadan. Another one was a day when I went to GTB and the queue was so long but I just see someone calling for my attention and said please come and I move closer to her and she said can you recognize me, I said no and she said I am Akinbo Elizabeth and she said I know you are my proprietor in SAMDOK Private School. I was so excited, right in the bank and she attended to me, you know I was so much excited. These are memories which give me joy and make me proud to be a teacher.’
For Mr. Taiwo, his greatest challenge was being able to get a permanent location for the school. He remarked: ‘The greatest challenge I faced is when the building I was using was sold without notice. I started from No 12 Kasumu street, later we move to No 40 Adebari street and at that No 40 Adebari street, the place was sold unnoticed and that was the greatest challenge I faced. By the grace of God, despite that challenge, we were able to get our permanent site for the school, which is No 2 Odeku street, where the school is now permanently.’
That period of moving from one rented apartment to another was very tough for us. Parents were really disturbed because some of them are not paying and seeing a school helping them and their children and seeing the school been moved out of the building was a sad and painful time for them but but by the grace of God we are able to overcome it and now we are at our permanent site.
