Proprietor Urges Children To Embrace Life Skills, Good Values

By Sherif Salau

Children have been encouraged to look beyond academic excellence and develop essential life skills, good character, creativity and discipline, as a school founder emphasises the importance of raising well-rounded individuals equipped to succeed both in the classroom and beyond.

Academic excellence alone will not prepare children for the future, the founder of a Lagos school has told pupils, parents and teachers, stressing the need to nurture creativity, practical skills and strong character alongside classroom success.

Halima Oke, Founder and Director of Halifield Schools, made the call at the institution’s 30th anniversary and thanksgiving ceremony held at the Muson Centre, Lagos. Reflecting on three decades of the school’s journey, she said every child possesses unique gifts, even those who do not top the class academically.

“Not every child is academically inclined, but every one of them is gifted in one way or the other,” Oke said. Some children, she noted, may not shine brightest in the classroom yet possess extraordinary creativity, talent, ingenuity or practical abilities that can take them far in life.

That belief, she explained, shaped Halifield from its earliest days. The school deliberately introduced skills acquisition into its programme, recognising that education must go beyond examination results. Oke recalled how the idea took root after she observed pupils who excelled outside formal lessons — in culinary skills, hairstyling, baking, dance, piano, knitting and art. What some parents initially saw as “too much play” later unlocked confidence in children who had been considered academically weak.

Halifield began modestly in 1996 with just ten children across preschool to Primary 4. Classes were tiny; one had a single pupil. Oke took no salary for several years while the school struggled financially. “It was small. It was simple. But the dream was big,” she said. The reward, she added, was the joy of watching an idea she deeply believed in come alive. Demand from parents whose children completed primary school later led to the establishment of Halifield College in 2012.

Principal Frances Osuchukwu reinforced the school’s holistic approach. Vision, she said, is not merely about putting up classrooms or producing examination successes, but about helping students discover themselves through education, skills and other areas of interest. The school has recorded strong performances in WAEC, NECO and JAMB while continuing to emphasise the whole child.

Keynote speaker and former Covenant University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abiodun Adebayo, echoed the same message. The true measure of a school, he told the gathering, is not only what its students know but who they become. He urged teachers to see themselves as builders of future leaders and custodians of values, and challenged students to aim beyond mere passes.