All Weather group of Schools is an institution that has lived the test of time. It has produced graduates and people who are making that state and nation proud. Founded a long time ago by Mrs. Essien today, it has continued to remain one of the most reliable and dependable Educational institution. On the first of March, next week Saturday, the institution will be holding her 2014 Inter House Sports competition, it promises to be explosive, all inclusive and an event that will stand the test of what it is meant to be. In this interview with THE INK reporter in Eket, the Chairman All Weather Group of Schools Chief Uduak Essien and the Principal of the School Deaconess Esther Essien shed lights on why the Institution has remained the toast of this generational Education. Enjoy Excerpts
Please can you tell our readers who you are in a nutshell?
Thank you, I am Chief Uduak U Essien, the group chairman of All Weather International Schools, I happen to be an Eket man. All Weather has a branch in Onna and also in Idua. All Weather was established in 1973 by the late Chief Edna U. Essien of blessed memory. It was founded as a school and it has remained as a school till today.
Thank you, I am Chief Uduak U Essien, the group chairman of All Weather International Schools, I happen to be an Eket man. All Weather has a branch in Onna and also in Idua. All Weather was established in 1973 by the late Chief Edna U. Essien of blessed memory. It was founded as a school and it has remained as a school till today.
It is not for commercial activities, it is an educational based Institution and our products speak for us. From 1973 to about 2005 All Weather had been operating with a nursery and primary until about 2005 we had secondary section although the approval for the establishment of a secondary school was given by the government in 1995 during the days of the founder but due to one reason or the other it could not take off but it is in this dispensation that we took off. We have written WAEC and NECO twice and the results are very impressive. All Weather Schools is blessed with thorough bred professionals as teachers and management staff.
Tell us your background
Basically I am a teacher by profession having attended the then UNICROSS had my NCE from there, then went to the university of portHarcourt for a combined honour in Education, BA in English and later masters and lately another masters in public Order and information management from the University of Uyo. And I have in my team well-bred professionals to propagate education to the benefit of pupils and students of All Weather Group of Schools who will in turn impact on the society upon their graduation.
After the death of the founder of the institution, the school is still waxing stronger, what is that motivation that did not allow you to falter?
Well we are enjoying what that is rare in this part of the world, succession plan.Many businessess collapses, institutions fall because the original owner had no time for succession plans. The founder who was my mother had laid out the foundation for succession to ensure that the school does not die. I was to read law in the University of Calabar but she mounted pressure that I read education that is why I went to UNIPORT, my sister who is the principal also read education. She had her NCE from the then UNICROSS now UNIUYO, she has a BA in Fine Arts Education combined honours too and also a masters in Fine Arts. So as well-bred professionals, I think we will be failing as professionals’ teachers if we cannot propagate and run the school successfully after the demise of our mother the founder of the institution.
What is that thing that makes All Weather very thick some years back and what is that thing that is making All Weather still thick today?
What made All Weather thick as of then was commitment and what makes All Weather thick still today is still commitment, commitment to the achievement of the goals of the original founder and the zeal to make progress and set a standard.The whole hearted determination to ensure that the standard of Education is high and sustained at that level and beyond.
How do people appreciate Education in Eket
Well I want to tell you that Eket is a unique place because everything in Eket compared to other Local governments is uniqueness, the standard at which we propagate education and schools in particular here is unnecessarily high, higher than what is obtained even in Uyo. Eket as a local government as far as education is concerned has never been lopsided and by the grace of God with the settlement of outsiders who has also brought in their own ideas the academic standard in Eket is high and the interest of people in good schools is equally high.
What are the challenges you facemanaging All Weather International Schools?
As I said earlier, All Weather was established as an educational institution. You could see from the Architectural design of the School,the building housing the school, they were purpose built and we had a system that has been laid down and that of attaining the highest possible education standard. In most schools, in fact there is no school in Eket if I have to generalize it that you will not see at least one teacher who has the root traced to All Weather. All Weather continues and will continue to place serious emphasis on education that is why no matter who comes in, no matter the fancy it won’t take long people will still remember that where you can have a real sound, standard and quality education remains All Weather and a few others.
Do you have facilities for boarding?
For now No but we are working towards that. And very soon, sooner than later, we will begin full time boarding. We don’t just want to dump children into halls like chickens when we are ready with our hostel which is under construction now, people will believe and know that what we are doing, the standard is very high.
What are the challenges the School is facing?
Well, All Weather is not operating in space, we are operating in our society and the economic challenge the general society is facing also affects All Weather, there are a lot of things that would have been put in place of which we are trying to but we are being limited by funds and it is a little difficult to access bank facilities. The kind of bank facilities we access here is short term and you do very little or nothing with short term facilities, we have made representations to the government and I am happy that the minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo Iwella about one month ago pleaded with banks to start giving long term loans so that people can really plan ahead and be able to do business and pay back. And so if that works, we will be able to handle some of those financial challenges.
What is the standard of Education in All Weather?
Generally, the standard of Education as I said, All Weather is not operating in a vacuum, we judge our standard of education when we go out for public and external exams so I will want to say in summary that the standard is very high. We are always on top whenever we go out for Public and external examinations.
How do you handle the question of discipline among the children and even staff?
We do not have any challenge as far as discipline is concerned because we make discipline our bed rock, one of the cardinal focus and people who come there just know whenever they come in even the teachers they fit into the discipline so we do not have any challenge because it has been institutionalized. No problem about discipline because the hallmark of a school is discipline and this starts from the pupilsuniform, from the child’s dressing and moral upkeep so on. So discipline is no problem in All Weather, either from the teachers or the children.
Private schools are always quite expensive, Does All Weather fall into this class?
Like the popular radio advert that says better soup na money kill am. If you want to get the best out of your child, Education is an expensive venture but in All Weather we try to tame it down to a level that the not-too-haves and they haves are accommodated.
What provision do you make for sports?
Extra curricula activities is given a pride of place, like we are having our inter house sports on the 1st of March so we invest heavily in sporting activities because we know the role of sports in the society today. And our inter house sports will be coming up in Onna stadium from 10:00am.
What are the medals that will be competed for?
Definitely there will be gold, silver and bronze medals and we have more than 36 events to be competed for, we also involve the sports council to regulate the events for us, the police will be on grounds to provide security throughout the competition.
As the chairman All Weather group of schools, what are the challenges you have faced as a person by managing the nursery, primary and secondary?
Well on my own path it is minimal because I have staff in all the departments and these people there are very hardworking. Like the principal who is the administrator general.The principal in turn reports to me and we handle them at management level and most of the problems are absorbed because the managerial hierarchy is efficient.
What advice do you have for parents and your teachers and staff as well?
My advice always to parents even when we have our P.T.A meeting is always try no matter the economic situation and other challenges to always live up to responsibilities by providing those things that are needed by the students and the pupils to enable them to concentrate. Most parents wait until there is fee drive before they pay the fees of their children and wards, these things have serious negative side effects on the children. The teachers I always encouraged them to be committed I make them know that their life will not start and end with All Weather.
What advice for Government in terms of Education matters?
As I said earlier, the government should engage professional, experts to advise them appropriately on how this free education should actually be administered for better result.
The dichotomy in pupils responses and interests in English against other science based subjects especially Mathematics, how do you handle that in All Weather?
Well it depends on where the child finds his or her self and also where his interest lies. But we do not allow any subject to supersede over the other especially the compulsory subjects, we address them equally. We all know the importance of science in the present world and we engage professionals to lay good foundation for science, mathematics, further maths and so on, we make sure we lay good foundation. So the issue of children having advantages in English and so on is not really applicable to us.Like some pupils were brought from Abuja they could not write their names but were very good in oral and spoken Englishbut after staying with us for a while, we brush them up and put them through.
Thank you for your time
The Honour and pleasure is mine
Tell us your background
Basically I am a teacher by profession having attended the then UNICROSS had my NCE from there, then went to the university of portHarcourt for a combined honour in Education, BA in English and later masters and lately another masters in public Order and information management from the University of Uyo. And I have in my team well-bred professionals to propagate education to the benefit of pupils and students of All Weather Group of Schools who will in turn impact on the society upon their graduation.
After the death of the founder of the institution, the school is still waxing stronger, what is that motivation that did not allow you to falter?
Well we are enjoying what that is rare in this part of the world, succession plan.Many businessess collapses, institutions fall because the original owner had no time for succession plans. The founder who was my mother had laid out the foundation for succession to ensure that the school does not die. I was to read law in the University of Calabar but she mounted pressure that I read education that is why I went to UNIPORT, my sister who is the principal also read education. She had her NCE from the then UNICROSS now UNIUYO, she has a BA in Fine Arts Education combined honours too and also a masters in Fine Arts. So as well-bred professionals, I think we will be failing as professionals’ teachers if we cannot propagate and run the school successfully after the demise of our mother the founder of the institution.
What is that thing that makes All Weather very thick some years back and what is that thing that is making All Weather still thick today?
What made All Weather thick as of then was commitment and what makes All Weather thick still today is still commitment, commitment to the achievement of the goals of the original founder and the zeal to make progress and set a standard.The whole hearted determination to ensure that the standard of Education is high and sustained at that level and beyond.
How do people appreciate Education in Eket
Well I want to tell you that Eket is a unique place because everything in Eket compared to other Local governments is uniqueness, the standard at which we propagate education and schools in particular here is unnecessarily high, higher than what is obtained even in Uyo. Eket as a local government as far as education is concerned has never been lopsided and by the grace of God with the settlement of outsiders who has also brought in their own ideas the academic standard in Eket is high and the interest of people in good schools is equally high.
What are the challenges you facemanaging All Weather International Schools?
As I said earlier, All Weather was established as an educational institution. You could see from the Architectural design of the School,the building housing the school, they were purpose built and we had a system that has been laid down and that of attaining the highest possible education standard. In most schools, in fact there is no school in Eket if I have to generalize it that you will not see at least one teacher who has the root traced to All Weather. All Weather continues and will continue to place serious emphasis on education that is why no matter who comes in, no matter the fancy it won’t take long people will still remember that where you can have a real sound, standard and quality education remains All Weather and a few others.
Do you have facilities for boarding?
For now No but we are working towards that. And very soon, sooner than later, we will begin full time boarding. We don’t just want to dump children into halls like chickens when we are ready with our hostel which is under construction now, people will believe and know that what we are doing, the standard is very high.
What are the challenges the School is facing?
Well, All Weather is not operating in space, we are operating in our society and the economic challenge the general society is facing also affects All Weather, there are a lot of things that would have been put in place of which we are trying to but we are being limited by funds and it is a little difficult to access bank facilities. The kind of bank facilities we access here is short term and you do very little or nothing with short term facilities, we have made representations to the government and I am happy that the minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo Iwella about one month ago pleaded with banks to start giving long term loans so that people can really plan ahead and be able to do business and pay back. And so if that works, we will be able to handle some of those financial challenges.
What is the standard of Education in All Weather?
Generally, the standard of Education as I said, All Weather is not operating in a vacuum, we judge our standard of education when we go out for public and external exams so I will want to say in summary that the standard is very high. We are always on top whenever we go out for Public and external examinations.
How do you handle the question of discipline among the children and even staff?
We do not have any challenge as far as discipline is concerned because we make discipline our bed rock, one of the cardinal focus and people who come there just know whenever they come in even the teachers they fit into the discipline so we do not have any challenge because it has been institutionalized. No problem about discipline because the hallmark of a school is discipline and this starts from the pupilsuniform, from the child’s dressing and moral upkeep so on. So discipline is no problem in All Weather, either from the teachers or the children.
Private schools are always quite expensive, Does All Weather fall into this class?
Like the popular radio advert that says better soup na money kill am. If you want to get the best out of your child, Education is an expensive venture but in All Weather we try to tame it down to a level that the not-too-haves and they haves are accommodated.
What provision do you make for sports?
Extra curricula activities is given a pride of place, like we are having our inter house sports on the 1st of March so we invest heavily in sporting activities because we know the role of sports in the society today. And our inter house sports will be coming up in Onna stadium from 10:00am.
What are the medals that will be competed for?
Definitely there will be gold, silver and bronze medals and we have more than 36 events to be competed for, we also involve the sports council to regulate the events for us, the police will be on grounds to provide security throughout the competition.
As the chairman All Weather group of schools, what are the challenges you have faced as a person by managing the nursery, primary and secondary?
Well on my own path it is minimal because I have staff in all the departments and these people there are very hardworking. Like the principal who is the administrator general.The principal in turn reports to me and we handle them at management level and most of the problems are absorbed because the managerial hierarchy is efficient.
What advice do you have for parents and your teachers and staff as well?
My advice always to parents even when we have our P.T.A meeting is always try no matter the economic situation and other challenges to always live up to responsibilities by providing those things that are needed by the students and the pupils to enable them to concentrate. Most parents wait until there is fee drive before they pay the fees of their children and wards, these things have serious negative side effects on the children. The teachers I always encouraged them to be committed I make them know that their life will not start and end with All Weather.
What advice for Government in terms of Education matters?
As I said earlier, the government should engage professional, experts to advise them appropriately on how this free education should actually be administered for better result.
The dichotomy in pupils responses and interests in English against other science based subjects especially Mathematics, how do you handle that in All Weather?
Well it depends on where the child finds his or her self and also where his interest lies. But we do not allow any subject to supersede over the other especially the compulsory subjects, we address them equally. We all know the importance of science in the present world and we engage professionals to lay good foundation for science, mathematics, further maths and so on, we make sure we lay good foundation. So the issue of children having advantages in English and so on is not really applicable to us.Like some pupils were brought from Abuja they could not write their names but were very good in oral and spoken Englishbut after staying with us for a while, we brush them up and put them through.
Thank you for your time
The Honour and pleasure is mine
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