Governor of Kwara State AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq personally congratulated the students who achieved scores between 300 and 355 in the nation’s most recent Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) during a visit to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus College in Ilorin yesterday.
The governor explained that his trip to the school was intended only as a token of appreciation for all Kwara students, both in public and private institutions, who excelled in the national exam.
“I am here today on behalf of the people and government of Kwara State to say we are proud of you and all others like you across our state. We are proud of the achievements of this school because you alone have 35 students who scored over 300 in the UTME. So, my visit here is to congratulate you and encourage you to do more,” AbdulRazaq said.
He urged the lower-class pupils to put in more effort and outperform their performance from this year in the upcoming years.
“To those of you in junior classes, here and across our state, I want to urge you to do better next year. We know it is a result of hard work and discipline, I congratulate the principal and the staff for the job well done.
“I also encourage the principal and staff to do peer review among other schools and impart what you have been doing well with others,” the governor said.
AbdulRazaq complimented the school for making the state proud by achieving great scores in the national examination. He said that these accomplishments, coupled with other state victories, encapsulate Kwara’s rise to prominence in the country as the state to go to for high-quality education.
Rev. Sister Margaret Ihinolurinjan, the college’s principal, expressed surprise at the visit and praised AbdulRazaq for his encouragement.
“We are trying to do our best for these children and to inculcate discipline in them, and make sure we do it the right way, and God is doing the rest. We don’t joke with our discipline with the learning and the teaching we give them. We don’t joke with our curriculum.
“We have always been grateful to God. We have always had records, but this one is the biggest of all, and it is all over the news. I am so humbled. I appreciate your presence. You are welcome, sir.
“Even at the state level, we have always won the Tax Quiz Competitions organised by the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS),” she added.
The school will keep making the state proud, Ihinolurinjan vowed.