Ogun State, which has Abeokuta as its capital was founded in February 1976. It is currently headed by Senator Ibikunle Amosun and is referred to as the Gateway to Nigeria. If I was still little I could probably say it’s because of their Ofada rice produced in Ofada town in respect of the saying that “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” I would have been wrong.

 It borders the Republic of Benin to the East, Lagos state to the South, Ondo state to the West and Osun state to the North with twenty (20) local Governments. Ogun state consists of both Christians and Muslims but majorly Christians and has amazing cultural events which include the “Ake Festival of Arts and Books” founded in 2013 by one of the Nigerian great writers, Lola Shoneyin. Talking about books, there is a historic, tourist and academic presidential library owned by former Nigerian President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and even the National Library of Nigeria is located in the same state.

Truth be told, Ogun people love books and that’s why they invest in academics, producing schools with value.

 I will be sharing top schools with you among other outstanding schools in Ogun State.

1.City of Knowledge Academy (CKA)

Ijebu-Ode is the Chief town and capital of the Ijebu Kingdom, the 2nd largest city in Ogun State comprises this beautiful school that supports both the contemporary and integrated approach of teaching and learning. It is usually referred to as the school with the lake because of the marvellous artificial lake in the middle of the school.

 This school was founded in the year 2013 by a business leader and administrator, who is a graduate of Economics from the University of Ibadan, a fellow in the Institute of chartered accountants of Nigeria, alumnus of Harvard Business school USA and alumnus of International Institute for management and business development (IMD) Lausanne, Switzerland, amongst others, Mrs Mosun Belo-Olusoga. Mind you, I stretched her records for you to see reasons with me on why I earlier mentioned that Ogun State people are book inclined.

 This is basically a boarding secondary school and an award-winning school of categories such as American Mathematics and Microsoft certifications in Words and PowerPoint.

 Their school fee ranges from 751,000- 1,000,000 per term. CKA also awards scholarship in various categories and levels, they also have a group and individual sponsors.

See more on CKA here.

2.The Bells Comprehensive Secondary School

Of course, when one hears the name “Bell” the mind travels first to alerts. This school, already from their name, is indeed called out. They obviously want their name to ring a bell once heard of, they have achieved a lot and passed knowledge to their pupils who tend to either be in the creche, nursery, primary or secondary school (day or boarding).

 This school was founded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the 20th of January, 1991 with a proposition that “no child is unteachable”. It is located in Otta town, they practice audio-visual learning, teach different languages such as English, other Nigerian Languages, Chinese and French. They also prepare their students for both O’level and A’level exams.

 Their school fee ranges from N301,000- N500,000, they practice a sibling discount method on third child applicant. click for more to know about The Bells Secondary and Primary School.

3.Rainbow College

Truly, a name is the first gift given to a child as the meaning of that name will manifest. I think the founder of the school Mrs O.O Odunlami should have first class in branding, with the way she has named her school, it has helped them come out in flying colors as their motto remains: Learning today, Leading Tomorrow.

This school has a day school in Lagos with sister schools “Pampers Private School, Alaka”, “Pampers Private School, Lekki” and a boarding school in Maba town, Ogun State.

Their scholarship is usually given to the best student in the entrance examinations into Jss1 and would continue based on performance in subsequent years, which will depend on other terms and conditions. Scholarship amounts are majorly 50% off the tuition fee for the student while their school fee ranges from N501,000-N750,000.

I will really love you to see more of what Rainbow school has got in stock here

4.Trinity International College (TIC)

This school fondly called TRICOL was established on the 10th of May, 1995 and later moved to 72 acres of land in the year 1998. It has a boarding secondary school in Ofada.

TIC has bagged Laurel awards, acquired good results locally and internationally.

 Among competitions won are the Nigerian International Secondary Schools Model United Nations (NISSMUN), International Biology Olympiad (Iran, 2018), International Physics (Indonesia, 2017), World Youth Scrabble (France, 2017), Cambridge IGCSE/GCE O’level top country award winners in Physics, Art and Design, Biology, Mathematics and English Language (2016), to mention a few.

 Their target is to close the gap between the present and future of a child. They have over eight hundred (800) students who attend the school. Tuition fee ranges from N501,000- N750,000, a sibling discount of 12.5% is being granted to the 3rd sibling.

Facilities, extra-curricular activities and other amazing stuff are something you may want to look at here.

5.JEXTOBAN SECONDARY SCHOOL

In the year 1995 on a perfect day as the 9th of January, Jextoban was established and has been a source of joy to tap from far and beyond Ibafo, Ogun State as the school extends to Lagos state somewhere in Ketu. The founder late Pastor and Mrs E.A Ojo made of it a Christian learning environment with twenty-five students (25) class size, comprises both day and boarding and has an amazing 5% sibling discounts, Tuition fee range per term is N301,000-N500,000. See how much Jextoban has to offer you here.

6.Folarin Dalley College

Close to rock formations in a wooden savanna is the largest city (Abeokuta) in Ogun state where Samuel Williamson Dalley (Primary) and Folarin Dalley College (Secondary) was founded in the year 2001 by late Dr. Barrister (Chief) Gbenga Dalley.

The school’s founding mission is to give quality education that would help to expand not only the cognitive but also the effective and psychomotor domains of a learning child. Folarin Dalley College is co-educational, it comprises both day and boarding facilities. The “Day pupils” are being conveyed in comfortable vehicles to and from school.

Over time, this school has had 100% pass in both Waec and Neco. Their admission process is quite easy and entrance examinations are taken every year in three (3) batches (March, April and May).

School fees here are N50,000- N150,000. Siblings discount for the third sibling is 10% and 15% off for the fourth sibling.

For more information, click here for Primary and here for Secondary.

7.Mueenat International Academy

In 2015 a school that aims at preparing pupils for useful living within the society was established, that is to say, that Mueenat has good intentions for our society as their students hold a reliable future.

They practice both Western and Islamic education and is located in Abeokuta same town that holds notable organisations in Nigeria. They are believers, their motto reads: Aim high and pray, no doubt that their standard of education is internationally based. Aside from academics, they are taught Islamic and moral values.

They have both day and boarding school.

In 2018, Mueenat came second in the Muslim Student Society of Nigeria.

School fees range from N50,000-N150,000. You can learn more about the school via this link.

8.Vine Crest College

As funny as this may sound, the people of Iperu-Remo has Ebiripo (a traditional meal made from cocoa yam), Ikokore (a delicacy shared by the majority of Ijebu people) and Ojojo to offer you, on the contrary Mrs. Folasade Oluwatoyin Philips (FOP) has wooden stem plant related to grapevine (Vine) and a crown (Crest) to offer you as in a sphere of academics so to teach inspire and nurture your children while they also enjoy what the town has in stock. On the 5th of October, 2017 the school which has taken Jesus Christ as their model, was established as a co-educational boarding school with an American curriculum.

It offers admission to other faiths who are not Christians but are willing to abide in the religious values and teachings they carry out.

School fees is at least N1,000,000.

Their facilities, extra-curricular activities and other information are worth checking out via this link.

9.The Ambassadors College

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” was the bases on which Home of Mathematics Champions (School’s nickname) was built on the 14th of September 1998 in Ota town.

It is a co-educational award-winning school that consists of a nursery, a primary and secondary school with day and boarding facilities.

Juliet Ekoko and Ayoola Oguntade made the school top Cowbellpedia Mathematics Quiz Competition as it earned the candidates N1,000,000 each and an all-expense paid education excursion outside the country according to The Guardian news.

Oh well, their motto which says “Where God helps us to make a total child” has and is still manifesting as some parents reviews qualify it.

“The school challenges the children to compete healthily and aim to the best, I have seen a great improvement in my children just in two terms” -John Akindowale.

“Excellent school that helped nurture my son. I don’t need to say anything because the testimony of the school speaks for itself. 30 of their students graduated from Covenant University with 17 in 1st class. Over 50% of the students are given scholarships from foreign universities. Taste and see that the Lord is good”.- Etofolam Felix Osuji.

 This school has won awards such as British council, Waec, National Spelling Bee and others.

School fees range from N301,000- N500,000 with sibling discount available.

Get more information here.

10.Nobelhouse College

A chemist would describe catalyst as a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.

A catalyst for progress is the other name Nobelhouse is referred to. The date for inception was on the 14th of March, 2006 in a massive land of 62,825 acres (25,425 hectares) somewhere in Abeokuta.

Candance Chijoke-Mba, on November 26 2018, won the Mind Game Incorporation (MGI) NobleHouse first scrabble tournament. The school has also won the Association of International School Educators of Nigeria (AISEN) award.

Their educational scope covers secondary/college, sixth form, Cambridge and IGSCE.

Admission is to all interested students including special educational needs (SEN).

School fees at least 1,000,000 with a

sibling discount of 5% of second sibling and scholarship to gifted and talented (G&T) students.

I will like you to inquire more on this link.

Feed your eyes with this video clip.

There is no field in business that has no competition, but there is always a stage to stand out where you can do things differently. The reason some businesses are not progressing today is because they have refused to try something new and out of the box. Innovation is the way forward for successful growth today. 

The school is a good business, you have parents who have been taking notes of things you do both wrongly and rightly and may or may not give you feedback, and then you have me as a mouthpiece, oh sorry an observer from SchoolsCompass who is willing to share facts with you based on complaints from parent who changed their minds from allowing their kids attend your school.

After you read through these few tips listed below, thank me later but first start by making a change in your school, to avoid stories that touches by next term, which is around the corner, before you say Jack your pupils are back on the assembly for resumption, I bet you want to make them happy, comfortable, satisfied, be the school name on the lips of almost every parent, maintain good network relationship among their parents. Yes, you need to network with parents if you really want growth but let’s leave that for another day.

Ride with me on this amebo (secret/gist) journey as I put retardation and stagnancy to shame.

1. School Appearance

Many parents walk/drive pass your school on a regular basis and it will shock you that they haven’t noticed for once that a school exists there because there is nothing significant to show for it.

I would like that you check this list below to avoid you saying I wrote this out of sentiment:

1. Do you keep your school environment spotless?

2. Are your paintings and wall designs still intact?

3. Is your gate/wall design with the best colors that speaks “Notice Me” volume?

4. Talking about structures, are your structures firm or worn out?

5. How about the road to your school, is it in good shape?

I am sure you have been able to answer the above questions with clarity. Furthermore, parents are not only concerned about the outlook of your school and out of curiosity would want to do a survey in the school compound, they would definitely look out for classroom arrangement, practical rooms and laboratories, restrooms/toilets, playground, refectories, dormitories, and so on depending on interest, kindly ensure that these places are well kept in order, you do not need to look expensive before you gain attention, cleanliness and maintenance system make even a poor man look rich, think about it.

2. Customer Care Service

Calls are not just about “hello” neither are emails about “Dear Ma/Sir,”, there is more to it than meets the eye, the communication skill is a thing to consider, are they patient, respectful, eloquent and positive towards your school’s growth?

Many parents get turned off by rude statements and if nothing at all but impatience because the customer care personnel could not hold proper discussions.

Aside from emails and calls, offline services towards parents matter a lot, ensure there is a warm reception which may include when, where and how you welcome parents and attend to them.

• WHEN: Anytime is the time to welcome parents feedback and request because they need to be attended to, in most cases meetings should be brief and precise so that every other parent can be attended to, more so to save time.
• WHERE: Make a space in your school with the right ambience, pleasant to the eyes, most importantly kept neat.
• HOW: Welcome them with a smile, make them feel comfortable, ask them if they need anything or offer them a glass of water. Someone reading this right now may neglect this, I assured you a positive turn out. You may have the money but do not have the idea it takes while others are wishing they had but are putting in efforts to make a change, when things change now, the next thing is that you call them your rival when they were not supposed to be in the space with you.

3. Quality Of Teachers

Are your teachers really qualified to handle your students? Do they speak fluently? What is their educational background like? Do you take them on training? Hope they have knowledge of “Human Behaviour”?

Handling kids in school are for professionals, parents do their part at home and pay for their children to attend your school to acquire knowledge and skills knowing that they cannot do it all.

Well, ensure that your teachers are patient enough to teach, kids as we all know to learn in a different pace, also make sure that your teachers are not too strict, playful and can understand a child’s need. Once this is achieved, you can now send your students out to compete with other kids from other schools, this will enable you to know if your quality of education is up to standard, not just that, parents would reach out to you so their kids can attend your schools, good news fly fast but bad news fly faster.

You definitely don’t want parents to withdraw their kids from your school because you can’t keep up with it.

4. Extra-Curricular Activity

Theory can be so boring if not mixed with experiences. In today’s world, no one wants to live on imaginations but what they see as seeing is believing, show them the actual things and once in while deviating from the norm.

Excursion enhances active learning where students can easily relate, this boosts their grades. There are schools you can look out for on our website with amazing extra-curricular activity. Have you tried this method regularly? Do this in such a way that your students want to go back to school and can’t wait for the resumption date.

5. Security

Many parents, would not send their children to a school that has no security system, take note of this. As a school owner ensure that you have security guards, census method, Closed Circle Television (CCTV) and trackers that can identify students location at a particular time depending on what you can afford but know that parents need to be assured that their children are going to be safe.

 6. Social Activities

Everything deserves a reward, parents send their children to you because they trust you to take good care of their kids. You can organize a meet and greet session for parents, cocktail parties, involve them in sports, something social to keep parents happy and stay put, you won’t regret doing this as it enhances bonding.

7. Online Presence/Social Validation

There is already a huge difference between ancient and modern, parents are looking out for schools that can close the gap, so it’s time for you to upgrade to your A’ game to avoid lagging behind, like using social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram to market your schools and showcasing your activities. More so like every other school in Nigeria, you can profile your school on SchoolsCompass to increase your online visibility.

The platform also serves as a third (3rd) party review for parents who are searching for schools and you don’t want to miss out.

Parents, kindly drop comments of challenges you may have faced so that Proprietors and Proprietresses can take note and make amends.

Esteem, having to do with respect and admiration, if not managed in the right order can cause melt down in your children’s emotions and feelings, thereby affecting their day to day activities and making them less productive. Among the levels of esteem, low self-esteem seem to be critical and common in children.

There are factors that lead to low self-esteem which parents can figure out and nip in the bud, below is a list that explains further on the effects of low self-esteem.

1. Diminish in Self-Worth:

Alot of kids look down on themselves and believes that there are limitations to the things they can do, only if they know their effort is needed to make the community a better place, encourage them by adding to their strength, tell them they can when they feel like they can’t, remind them that they are the best and that the world can’t wait to have them.

You can as a parent, make your children understand the essence of value, by expressing your love and care towards your child.

Create a rapport so that he/she can come up to you and open up regardless of what bothers the child – do not be harsh so you don’t scare the child, listen up to every of the complaint made, make corrections if need be, all this helps you in bonding properly to avoid fear. Fear is a deadly feeling that first reduces high self-esteem. Buy new clothes regularly if you can to make the child happy as it boosts confidence.

2. Low Academic Performance:

When your kids do the wrong things be patient enough to correct them, comparing them with others should be the last thing on your mind, everyone has their uniqueness and weakness, take time in finding what’s unique about your children, scold them only when you have warned them severally against their bad habits, better still apply the carrot and stick method.

Encourage them to have role models they could look up to. This make them to be aware of who they are, for instance, if actress Genevieve Nnaji, Chimamanda Adichie, Usain Bolt, Mitchelle Obama, Wole Soyinka or Banky W are role models to any of your child and he or she fails in art class, encourage the child by saying something like “the reason these persons are successful is because they focus, if you really want to be like them, then you have to be focused. Focused people don’t fail but if they eventually do, they quickly retrace their steps”. In speaking, teach them that fluency is key and that knowledge is power therefore it would enable them to speak with authority, while doing this remind them that they should speak less and listen more. They should also know that anything they do is worth doing well, success is not built in a day, it takes a process and starts when the kids are young.

3. Causes Loneliness:

When children are not being attended to, it makes them withdraw from the world gradually, not finding importance in existence, they may become drug addicts, cultist or cold and withdrawn, might have great ideas and prefer to bottle it up because they feel it is not relevant enough to share, this may lead to depression.

Explain to them that when they are mocked at, they should take it up as a challenge to improve themselves and the reason people condemn them at times is that they feel threatened that they may be better than them.

Holidays are some sort of free days for leisure and recreation as we all know. It is true that the brain needs break from school stress at some point but at the same time needs to stay alive always so to avoid forgetfulness and state of dormancy. It will be required of you as a concerned parent to look out for ways to help make your child be better, here are a few tips suggested below as the holiday is around the corner:

1. Make Sure They Eat Healthy

Give your kids proper balance diet, for those who eat less, provide them with supplements and multivitamins, more so enough fruits and vegetables is required, encourage them to drink water often and also a glass of milk, as research by international dairy journal shows that milk does not only help the bones but boast mental performance, low fat milk won’t be bad too.

2. Give Them A Break And Ensure Not To Exceed It

As soon as the break approaches, put in efforts to make sure that your children have restful time, engage them with activities that would help them relax their nerves such as swimming, going to the movies, playing with their mates (helps them do a lot of catch ups) and so on.

In each day ensure there are some playful and restful moments to make balance, try not to prolong the break as too much of everything is not good.

3. Make The Home Conducive For Learning

They are psychological effects that surround the brain and the environment, how is your home? A neat and well-kept home will go a long way in assisting your child’s development. You may need study table and chair for your kids, if possible a study room, what are the type of decorations placed in their rooms, does it speak volume in respect of learning? For the little ones, how does their bedspread design look like, will it teach the children? The kids need toys while teenagers need games that would help stimulate their thinking ability such as board games (ludo, chess,draft e.t.c), and any other productive game.

4. ACTIVE METHOD

Apply an active method whereby a child is constantly asked questions that he/she could either answer or be propelled to do a research on, it could be general questions or based on what the child had learnt in class having studied the scheme of work for his/her previous term. This method would help that child’s brain to be kept alive knowing fully well that questions may be popped up at anytime, you will be surprised on how that child would come back to you with questions for clarity or may have to contradict your opinion with reasonable facts, this would prove to you that growth has been made in his/her thinking ability. It could be in form of practicals, for example while cooking in the kitchen you can ask that the child measures 1/2 cup of an ingredient into a bowl or other questions like, if 3 cups of rice would feed the six of us, how many cups of rice would feed us when we are ten?, What is the capital of Lagos state? Where is the statue of liberty located (this is a research question as it may not be taught in schools but because you want your child to be vast in knowledge) and so on.

5. Enroll Your Kids Into Holiday/Summer Classes

Your kids would have to be kept busy with some holiday classes where they can learn new skills from either their tutors or classmates, a place where they can have proper recreation that would keep their minds in a happy state. New knowledge gained can enhance their next learning stage. Here, they can learn even more artistic skills like sewing, hair making, drawing etc, and scientific skills like electrical circuit construction and other interesting stuff like learning new languages, baking and so on.

6. Take Note Of The Television Channels And Books Your Kids Are Engaged With

This will depend on the age of your child, persuade child to watch stations that will help boast his/her speaking ability like fluency in English, channels that would teach etiquette, news, documentaries like that of wild lives, history, sports and intellectual movies only for their age, music sometimes to light up their moods.Teach also the act of reading, buy books that may cover stories, inspirational, vocabulary and even documentaries.Be careful with your kids engagements to avoid them being exposed to the wrong and unnecessary things.

7. Family Outings

This is one essential thing you can do for your kids, they always want to be reminded that they are loved and accepted.Try as much as possible to take them out with you to places they can relate with, like shoprite ( you can show them how to use the Point Of Sale, POS machine), the village ( where they can understand their origin and history) amusement park, mountain climbing, skating (if the family engages in travelling abroad for vacations), zoo, cinemas and the list goes on, you may also use any cost effective means to teach your child, like showing them vegetation or rivers while travelling and teaching them what you know about it, showing them a railway, taking them to a farm if you want them to have an idea on agriculture (farmland, fish pond, poultry, pigsty and others), teaching them landmark methods by reading up almost every sign post they see on the way or taking note of a particular building, bridge etc, showing them statues and the stories behind them to mention a few.

These and many more are the tips you can apply on your kids for positive results and enhancement.

This is  the second in the series of my posts on importance of  online reviews to your school enrollment strategy. I outlined some reasons why you may want to embrace online reviews in my last post.

Getting online reviews for your school is not a rocket science but you have to make conscious efforts to achieve real success in it. The alternative to it which most school owners do is to leave it and do nothing about it – the consequence is grave and the risk is high.

For those who want to give it a try, here are 11 tips for achieving it.

1. Ask, Ask, and Ask: The truth is that if you don’t ask, you are not likely to get it. Customers are more prone to writing negative reviews about products than writing negative reviews. When last did you go online to tell the world how great this dress you bought looks on you? It is just natural.

Cultivate the habit of asking parents to review your service. You’ll be surprised by their willingness to do so.

2. Make it simple and seamless: If you are requesting your parents to drop a review for your school, be sure that you don’t make it complex – send them an email or SMS and make sure the message contains a link to the exact place where to write the review with clear instructions. Avoid a situation where they have to navigate there themselves or figure out what to do.

 3. Tell them what to expect: Unfortunately, most review sites require users to log in before they can write reviews. This is to prevent ‘spamming’ or any other automated and unwanted inputs but most users detest it.

If users are required to login before reviews are made, let the users know beforehand so they expect it and psychologically prepare for it. It is OK to manage such expectation, otherwise, it could be a roadblock that could get them irritated and leave the sites without writing any.

Take advantage of happy their moments:  When they come to you telling you how their children have improved academically under your tutelage and singing praises of your school. Take advantage of that moment, ask them to prove it by writing a review for your school.

4. Don’t ask for positive feedback/review, ask them for honest feedback/review: Asking parents directly for positive reviews has automatically defeated the purpose of asking in the first place. There is a huge difference between ‘Positive’ and ‘Honest’ feedbacks in the mind of your customers. ’ You don’t want to come across as being forcefully or telling them that, ‘I know I don’t merit it, but do it for me’. That alone is negative, be careful with your choice of words.

5. Send email reminders to willing parents ONLY: It is very possible that some busy parents genuinely forget to write the review as promised, take time to check online to see if they have not done so and sent them a gentle reminder or SMS to nudge them to do so. In order not to appear intrusive, make sure you send to only parents you have had a conversation with before.

6. Start with your circle of friends: A good place to start your request for online reviews is your good friends among the parents who are not likely to say NO. This is called ‘low hanging fruits’. With this, you know what works in your approach and also what does not work. Perfect your strategy of reaching out and then launch it to other parents.

7. Take advantage of special events: Get a series of internet-ready devices on your special event days like PTA, inter-house sports and all that and politely asking parents to OPTIONALLY drop a review the same way you ask them to register their arrival. You may not get all of them to oblige but remember that reviews are not a game of numbers. One or two positive reviews could be all you need.

You may also decide to go ‘manual’ and offline to achieve the same purpose if you don’t have the resources. ’

8. Create a memorable and newsworthy event or scintillating performance:  According to James Hadley Chase, ‘Goldfish have no hiding place‘. Try to organize a newsworthy event that attracts the attention of everyone in the space- even the government. This would definitely trend and fetch your school some ‘Accolades’. ’

Imagine one of your pupils wins N1M on ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ programme or had A1 in all his/her external examination.

Naturally, every parent of your school would like to identify with it, they likely go online themselves telling the whole world that they also have children in your school that are doing great – This give credence to the fact the success has many families but failure is an orphan. Take a deliberate effort to be extra successful and innovative and watch the magic!

10. Introduce incentives: Many parents see an online review as stressful that they don’t want to go through or make time for. As a school owner, putting yourself in their shoes will also have the same feeling running through your mind.

Naturally, customers behave like children and creating a review and reward promo in any of the school events by offering incentives such as simple chocolates, sweet, biscuit, tickets to watch films etc to parents can ease that stressed feeling and make reviewing your school sound exciting and simple to parents.

11. Be honest with it: Let parents know that this is to your benefit and it is just a favour you are asking from them. Don’t package it as if they are also benefiting from reviews when they are not.