WHICH IS NIGERIAN'S OLDEST SCHOOL?

Modern education in Nigeria dates back to 1842 when christian missionary activity birthed in Nigeria. Among the students and alumni of the Lagos baptist academy and CMS grammar school,there is healthy rivalry to determine which is the older school, and among the Methodist and Anglicans, which pioneered education. Whereas the baptist academy was established in 1855, CMS came into being four years later in 1859. But that is only part of the answer. Whereas baptist academy started first as a primary school, graduating into a secondary school in 1885, CMS grammar school has always been a secondary school. On this score the grammarians say their school is 26 years older than Baptists.

Since primary schooling preceded secondary schooling, it is more productive to examine where education began and what legacy it has bequeathed to Nigeria? At the heart of that question is a healthy rivalry that speaks to the heart of the pattern of growth and development of western education in Nigeria and the place of legacy schools relative to others

So where did education begin? On this score, the Anglican diocese of Egba points to saint peter’s Anglican school, Abeokuta as the first, having been established in 1846. In truth, there was an earlier effort at implanting education in Nigeria in badagry, where the Methodist established the nursery of the infant church, badagry, in 1843 and the CMS founded a school later called the saint Thomas Anglican primary school in 1845. In 1853, the CMS-affiliated hinder er family began a school in Ibadan as did the baptist in ijaye. 

The Presbyterian church of Scotland set up another school in creek town in 1854, whilst the baptist in 1855 established the Lagos baptist  academy. Christian missionaries established these schools as twin accompaniment to implanting Christianity in Nigeria.

Overtime, these early schools have fallen on different fortunes with the result that today, the most renowned of them is the Lagos baptist academy. Why it has endured for 160 years where others failed will require a more definitive research in future, but it is useful to examine its raison d’etre and the path it has trodden over the years. Established by the southern baptist convention, Houston Texas, USA, the overriding consideration was to operate a school  that would provide  a balanced education with  baptist Christian ethics for little children; an academy “that guides her students in paths of coordinate studies, that influences right thought for acceptable and honorable conduct, teaches her students to have respect for law and order both of government and of GOD.

Thirty years after the baptist academy started as an elementary school, the secondary wing was opened in 1885 on mission compound, broad street, Lagos by reverend William j. David- the missionary pastor of first baptist church,Lagos. Samuel harden, the son of reverend Joseph harden, was named as the first principal. Like the elementary school, the secondary arm was also co-educational.

Records show the late Dr. Joseph adejumobi adegbite, the first African principal, as being the longest serving principal(1954-1975). He had been a member of staff for a decade before his appointment  as principal. He was a father to students and staff who drummed it into all, the lesson that scholarship without character is dangerous.