Education is the means by which the future of a nation is sown and cultivated. There is hardly anything more important to the civic order than how the community’s young ones are educated. The education of one generation will determine the success or failure of the next.

If we take an honest look at our public schools against an authentic standard of education, we will observe that our public schools have been doing a great disservice to this great land for generations.

It gives me great pleasure and I am exceedingly happy to finally connect with the outside world on this website. We give thanks to God for his love and mercy on this great citadel of learning I am particularly grateful to Most Rev Gabriel Abegunrin, the then Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese who happened to be the first proprietor of this noble institution. The incumbent proprietor, Most Rev John Akinkunmi Oyejola, the Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese remains a source of great inspiration to us.

I am personally gratified at the various contributions of my predecessors (Baba Ogedengbe, Rev Fr Martin Obiyemi, Rev Fr Anthony Olagoke and Rev Fr Ambrose Olasinde) who have worked tirelessly to lift the image of this school about 20 years ago. I wish to take this opportunity of saying how proud we are of their achievements, and of their untiring contributions to national development in their strategic positions. We are grateful to the Franciscan Sisters of Immaculate Conception who spent their resources to begin the school, (Rev Sr Gerald, Rev Sr Francesco who served as administrators and Rev Sr Margaret Alokan who happened to be the first Vice Principal). May the Lord bless you all.

It is also important to acknowledge the generosity of the different teachers, PTA executives, parents, guardians and well wishers to the development of the school. At this point, I wish to express my gratitude to the illustrious honorary alumni of this great school (both day and hostel students) who have made us proud in the realms of knowledge and bless us with new books in the library. We are still looking forward to your support in the nearest future.

Every well planned education has both primary and secondary ends. This is the aim of our school. C.S. Lewis explains, “You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first”.(“First and Second things”, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, p. 280) The first things of an education are the edification of the human soul by the cultivation of virtues, using the liberal arts to lead students from moral and intellectual darkness into the light of truth. Acquisition of skills in learning form part of the second things. This should be properly transmitted to the students.

I am proud to say that this school has produced nothing less than 800 graduates into the various Universities all over world today. This is as a result of the focus of the Catholic Church in the formation of our children and youths. Most Rev John Oyejola, the Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese commented on this when he said at our cultural festival in February 2018 that “the Church loves formation of children and our youths, he further admonished that the church encourages hard work, sense of direction and skill acquisition, but not, laziness and stealing.

The church is highly disciplined, focused and found easiest ways of communicating values into her children. St Anthony’s Catholic high school is second to none and our formula for integrity is up-held. We are grounded in intellectual formation, moral formation and spiritual formation of our students. Our students attended different sporting and intellectual competitions and did us proud. This is also in line with what Professor Ayo Banjo, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan said in one of his writings that, “it is the proper business of a school worth its salt to be, among other things, an ivory tower or, if you prefer, a shining beacon set upon a hill. The school in this country, as in other countries, do have a mission to elevate the rest of the society to higher rungs of the tower instead of pre-disposing themselves to being shouted down to the base.”

On this note I say, deciding where one’s wards should be educated can be a difficult task, especially in areas where there so many good public, parochial and charter schools. Many parents also choose home-schooling, and do a wonderful job. There are certainly myriads of choices, but perhaps our values hierarchy should help us choose. In deed, the place of God cannot be taken away from our education agenda.