Management and alumni of schools and other educational institutions in Nigeria have been urged to set up an endowment fund for a sustainable source of income and funding.
The National President of Ekiti Baptist High School Old Students’ Association Quantity Surveyor, Ifelola Oyebade, who gave the urge also expressed the readiness of the alumni association to take over the management of the school.
He spoke at the Mega Launch of One (1) Billion Endowment Fund for the upgrading of their Alma Mater, Ekiti Baptist High School, Igede Ekiti, Ekiti state.
The retired lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos who noted that having a sustainable source of income and funds for the school is sacrosanct l commended the state government efforts at revitalizing standard of education in the state however, said the infrastructural decadence in the school was the reason for the endowment fund.
Speaking at the event organised by the EBHSOSA, Ekiti & Ondo states chapters, Oyebade who was making allusion to the resolve of Ekiti state government to return missionary schools to their original owners said such will ensure effective and efficient running of the schools.
Identifying the endowment fund as a viable source of funds for schools said , “The school is now 68-years-old, having been established in 1956.
“It is a known fact that inadequate funding of secondary schools has been a serious problem since its take over by the state government in 1976, this our resort to alternative sustainable means of generating funds to improve the dilapidated/decaying infrastructures and introduce legacy projects to ensure the continued existence as well as a competitive secondary school in the state and in Nigeria.”
Highlighting various achievements of the association in terms of renovations and donations, the president noted that some of the classrooms, dining hall and others are all dilapidated and are nothing to write home about, which made them think of the endowment fund.
Expressing his views on the state government returning schools to their original owners, he said, “Yes, that is one of our priorities and it is one of the reasons we started this endowment fund. In Fact, the first principal of this school, Mr. John Hill, who died many years ago, left a will that some of his belongings should be shared among Baptist schools in the country and EBHS is one of them.
“They had refused to give out the money because the government is still in control of the school. But they promised to release the fund as soon as we get the school back to the Nigeria Baptist Convention.
“And we say, if we are going to get it, let us start the endowment fund and if we are able to get one billion naira and we invest it, getting just ten percent of it as interest every years, that is 100 million naira a year , when we spent such huge amount on the school, even a blind will see that something has been done.
“Nigeria Baptist Convention has taken over some of the schools and is funding them very well.
“This School is not in any way different, we should go ahead to take it over and bring it to the Nigeria Baptist Convention. So we are still on it and we have met all the conditions.”
About the association endowment fund launch, Oyebade said, “The richest university in the world, Harvard university uses endowment funds to keep the institution going. It is worth about 202 billion dollar in terms of endowment fund, which makes it the richest university in the whole world. And most of the universities in the developed country use endowment funds to fund their institutions.
