Queens College gets gifts of hostel & school bus from Parents Teachers Association

Queens College gets queenly gifts of hostel and school bus

By Jet Stanley Madu

In the past four years, the Queens College Parents Teachers Association (QCPTA) has spent N289, 000,000 (two hundred and eighty-nine million naira) on the construction of hostel for students of the college. The hostel said to accommodate about 600 students including prefects and house mistresses, is also designed to house the Junior Secondary (JS) 1 students.

Equipped with water facilities and every needed amenity for the students’ convenience, the PTA Chair, Mrs. Beatrice Akhetuamen, assured during the handing over ceremony of three-storey hostel block that the association would give attention to maintaining the facilities. The ceremony also witnessed the presentation of keys of two brand new buses donated to the school by the PTA, to the Queen College Principal, Dr. Lami Amodu. One of the buses is a Coaster bus while the other is a 14-seater Hiace

Receiving the keys, Amodu noted that the vehicles would serve the transport need of the students. She commended the PTA which she said, has been very consistent in assisting the college in various respects by being very responsive to the needs of the school even as she hailed the vision and efforts of her predecessors who she said, laid the foundation for the harvest from the very beginning. She also commended the patience and hard work of Mrs. Akatuemen without whose relentless efforts the projects would not have seen the light of the day.
While fielding questions from newsmen, Akhetuamen explained that the donation of the hostel is indeed significant because her two daughters were among several students who were de-listed by the former school head for lack of hostel accommodation.

She recalled that the action of the then Principal, Mrs. M. O. A. Ladipo, to de-list some senior students aroused serious uproar amongst parents. Amidst the bickering, Ladipo threw a challenge to the parents to provide accommodation for their children and wards. This challenge, according to Akhetuamen, is what gave birth to the hostel accommodation. She expressed confidence that the hostel would help boost scholarship among the students.

Providing insight into what prompted the association to embark on the purchase of the vehicles, she said it was because of the suffering the students go through, due to lack of good vehicles, whenever they go for an outing.
“Often, the vehicles break down on the way and leave them stranded,” she said. “So we felt since we have finished this project and have some money let in our coffers, we decided to buy a coaster bus for their out-of-school engagements. The smaller bus will serve as a day-shuttle for the day students that are being accommodated in the hostels.”
Some of the beneficiaries could not hide their joy being housed in such befitting edifice.