By joshua ALMA MATER: A CALL TO REMEMBER WHERE WE STARTED
Sometimes, in the pursuit of personal success, we forget the places and people who contributed to making us who we are today. One of such places is our Alma Mater.
It is quite painful that many of us who passed through our former schools, received quality education, discipline, guidance and the foundation upon which we built our careers, have seemingly forgotten those institutions.
Today, some of our former students occupy prominent positions in government, various ministries, agencies, private establishments and other places of influence. Some are successful entrepreneurs, professionals and public office holders. Yet, it is disappointing that many hardly find time to visit the schools that helped shape their destinies, let alone contribute to their development.
A school does not need to receive millions from you before your impact can be felt.
If you cannot build a classroom, you can donate a dozen exercise books. If you cannot provide computers, you can buy pens, pencils and other learning materials. If you cannot renovate a building, you can support a student with school fees or provide a few textbooks. Even the smallest contribution, when made with sincerity, can make a meaningful difference.
More importantly, let us ask ourselves some honest questions: Why do we proudly celebrate our achievements but hesitate to identify with the schools that laid our foundation? Why do we entrust our children to other institutions while showing little interest in improving the schools that gave us our own educational beginnings?
I understand that times have changed and parents have different reasons for choosing schools for their children. However, our inability or unwillingness to enrol our children in our former schools should not become an excuse for abandoning them.
Our Alma Mater should never become a place we are ashamed to associate with simply because we have moved ahead in life.
Going back to your former school is not necessarily about what you can afford; it is about gratitude, responsibility and a sense of belonging. Visit the school, interact with the teachers and students, identify their needs and offer whatever support you can.
Let us stop waiting for government alone to do everything. The development of our former schools should also be a collective responsibility of those who benefited from them.
To our successful brothers and sisters, those in government, business, politics and other privileged positions, I appeal to you: Remember where you started. Go back to your Alma Mater. Give something, however little. Your contribution today may be the reason another child succeeds tomorrow.
After all, the true measure of success is not only how far we have travelled, but how much we are willing to give back to the places that helped us begin our journey.
May we never become too successful to remember our roots.
Let us give back to the schools that gave us a future.
By
Comrade Abduljelil Umar Adabara