RELEVANCE OF ROYAL MIRA BRITISH COLLEGE, TO IKA NATION
THE RELEVANCE OF ROYAL MIRA BRITISH COLLEGE, OWA, TO IKA NATION
To every well-meaning son and daughter of Ika nation, Delta state, Nigeria, the decision by Elder Iduh Moses and his lovely wife to site the Royal MIRA British College, in Owa, Ika North East Local Government Council of Delta state, is an initiative that all must view as laudable, appreciated and given the necessary support and patronage to flourish.
Admittedly, it is not the first private school in Ika nation. It is equally convenient to argue that it is a private sector aimed at profit making. But a visit to the school will not puncture this belief but amply illustrate that the choice of Owa as the site of the school was not informed by profit motive but primarily fueled by the burning desire of the owner to give back to the society that made him.
The school to a reasonable extent has brought development to the community and placed Ika nation on the global stage.
Essentially, if profit were to be the propeller, it is obvious that Royal MIRA British College which sits on a large expanse of land along Owa road and dotted with intimidating structure befitting a university, would have been built in one of the major cities in the country.
Take as an illustration, it is of a fact that if such school was sited in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) or Lagos state, the nation’s commercial nerve, profit would have multiplied and maximized as the school would have ranked among the best in any of the aforementioned cities. But for the love of the Ika nation, Elder Iduh opted for Owa as the best choice for such a school with international recognition and state of the art learning facilities. What a sacrifice!
Learning Facilities
Away from physical structures to quality of teaching, evidence abounds that the school parades teachers with international teaching certifications. Also heartening is the awareness that the teachers apply international best practices in their teaching methodology and operate a blended curriculum, comprising British and Nigeria.
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Staff Strengths and Human Capital
The school has a well-designed culture that ensures that quality is maintained and standard guaranteed by engaging as staff, the best brains in the nation’s teaching profession
This ‘culture’ has seen the school pull teachers out of the best ivy schools in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital and extends to other Africa countries. The Principal/Head of School, Dr. Victor Dele Oluwatoye, the Principal from Ekiti state is a Doctorate Degree holder (Ph.D.) as well as a Chartered Accountant, and recruited from Lekki, Lagos based ivy school. The Vice Principal is a seasoned educationist from Imo state, the Admission Officer is from South Africa, the Chemistry Teacher is from Ondo state, Physics teacher is from Benue but recruited from one of the best schools in Abuja, among other high profiled recruitments. Majority of the teachers are IGCSE certified.
Teaching Methodology;
In the words of the principal, we treat our students here like they are our biological children. We are taking care of them. We put internet system control in place to ensure teaching takes place and we’re also evaluating. Where we delegate teachers to teach in any of the subjects, we monitor from time to time. We have a monitoring committee in this school. I am the chairman of the monitoring committee. Principals hardly sit down in the office because when you delegate, you still need to be in the same classroom environment to see what the teachers are doing, to compare their scheme of work and see if they are already ahead and you put corrective action immediately.
Continuing, he said, we operate interactive classes. Students tend to learn better with what they see than the theoretical. So, I want to tell parents around the whole world that Royal Mira is a school set up like no other. We want to assure our parents that when they bring their children here; they will not regret it because we have qualified teachers, well-groomed teachers and teachers with interest in the kids.
International Affiliations
Ika Weekly reliably gathered that the school prepares students for IGCSE examinations. The benefits of this international examinations, according to the principal is that it pairs the students with their contemporaries in other schools and the way they speak is actually very different because international exams. involve critical thinking, skilled writing, coding and all of that. So, in terms of that, our students are far better when you compare them to our Nigerian curriculum. As you know, international examination is the only exam that is being written in Nigeria without any form of examination malpractice.
These international examinations notwithstanding, the school still sits for West African Examination Council Examination (WAEC) and those that have written, passed very well. We have zero tolerance for exam malpractice. We are a Christian school, we are a God-fearing school, we treat our students like kings and queens. We are a day and boarding school with good transport facilities. Our hostels are home away from home. They are well air-conditioned. We do not crowd our students in a classroom.
In the words of the Principal, the School is looking at producing global champions, academics with strong moral cognitive skills. In terms of education, it involves cognitive, psychomotor and affective. Affective has got to do with character. As you can see, when a teacher is in class, they must show respect. That’s humility and if that must be put in practice by the students, it has to start from the head. The head should demonstrate it.
We are men of integrity in this school. We have men and women of honour in the school. Apart from that, we have what we call college culture and life skills. The motto of the school is that you must show respect. The college culture of this school is that we must show respect to every individual. The college culture of this school is that we are strictly on a spiritual agenda where students are taught how to use musical instruments.
Aside from that, we have a stimulating success agenda. In this, we are looking at the positive aspect of education where students are carried along. We make them believe in themselves. It depends on the educational system to ensure they perform well academically.
Apart from that again, we also have the writing agenda where students can represent us in any competition like essay writing, such as Queen’s competition, Kings Competition, mathematics competition, and the list is endless.
We have zero tolerance for exam malpractice. We are a Christian school, we are a God-fearing school, and we treat our students like kings and queens. We are a day and boarding school with good transport facilities. Our hostels are home away from home. They are well air-conditioned. We don’t crowd our students in a room’. They should please send their children to the Royal MIRA. He concluded.
