Uchechukwu Nnaike
In what can be described as a journey from lockdown to legacy, Corona Day Secondary School, Lekki, has graduated its pioneer set, that enrolled in 2020, when COVID-19 had shuttered classrooms and disrupted learning experiences worldwide.
The class of 2026, consisting of 32 students, didn’t just earn certificates, they displayed high level of resilience, which was rewarded by the numerous awards, recognitions and laurels they won for the school.
The set’s dynamic learning experience, which included intermittently switching to online learning during the pandemic, as well as school-wide participation in major exams under pandemic restrictions have also informed a new thinking for the school’s management, which recently upscaled the schools’ technology enhancement tools and platforms with the support of the Corona Schools Alumni Association, including tools like virtual reality and augmented reality systems, to transform the learning experience for students.
To kickstart this process, the school has incorporated artificial intelligence into about five subjects with the expectation that the investment will ensure that its students are hands-on in experiential learning and, by extension, become globally competitive.
Disclosing these upcoming investments at the sidelines of the inaugural graduation ceremony of Lekki Secondary School, the Governing Board Chairman, Corona Schools’ Trust Council, Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf, credited the board and management team for accomplishing the task of unveiling their Lekki Secondary School campus six years ago and now having its first set of graduates.
“We are truly grateful to parents who trusted us with their children at a brand-new campus during the scariest year in recent memory. Today, we’ve produced another set of leaders,” Yusuf said, adding that graduates have not only attained academic excellence, but have also succeeded in non-academic activities such as sports, public speaking and other areas.
Congratulating the students for their resilience, Principal of Corona Day Secondary School, Lekki, Mr. Oluwagbemileke Amoo said, “if one word is to summarise how I feel, it’ll be fulfillment. It was a risk to start in the year that we started. There were uncertainties, but there was just faith.”
He added: “That faith is now vindicated. The set’s salutatorian scored 363 in UTME, the 11th position nationally. One graduate is the reigning national shot put and discus champion in his age category, a title he’s defended from Ibadan to Lagos. Others have carried the school to the top of regional basketball and debate competitions.”
The set’s unique story was further captured by the principal disclosing how the students intermittently switched to online learning at the height of Covid-19 and participated in major exams under pandemic restrictions, yet grades didn’t drop.
According to Amoo, the set also inspired the idea of PEN (Problem solvers, Excel, and Network). A framework designed by the set to help sharpen their minds and build their character and ultimately help them mature year after year.