The role of old boys association in Maintaining the alma-mater-50+
Today, after a half of a century of the existing of our Alma-mater , Bubendorff Grammar School, Adazi, a number of questions are inevitable. What has the school achieved in academic, sporting and other extracurricular activities to justify its fifty five [55] years of existence? What direction is the institution heading as it embanks on another historical voyage? What significant role has the school played during the prewar and post war years in enhancing the growth and development of the society? Most importantly, what should be the role of old boys Association in enhancing the continued growth and development of this noble institution?
Being an alumnus of B. M. G. S. Adazi Nnukwu, it is the last question that appears most striking to me. I am therefore devoting this brief write up to it.
Old boys Association are the greatest fraternities of all times.
Some times greater than brotherly, tribal or societal ties! This is not one of those human tendencies to emotionalize relationships. Far from it. Because, alumni members, having attended the same institution, having lived in the same hostels and shared the same classrooms, and having been taught by the same teachers and fed on the same food in the same refectory for many years, grow to regard their institution as the mother. The social norms and interaction within the institution grow into entrenched institutional traditions. This gives the students a common devotion and identity.
New student, on being admitted into the school imbibe and regenerate those ideals and upon leaving the school, always endeavor to send their children to the same institution.
Hence, Alumni everywhere have a permanent interest in their Alma Mater which is always their reference point. By the very fact of having passport to life and to a career, their fortunes and that of their institution which “molded” them here become closely intertwined for the rest lives.
What happens to one affects the other.
The Old Boys Association can also be said to be acting always as the cult headquarters, administering the activities that foster stronger ties among its members and at the same time creating an atmosphere for closer attachment to the alma mater. It is this obsession to the institution that makes its ex-student fights any attempt from within or outside to disrupt the smooth functioning of their institution.
This is also why in many institutions; the old students take a constant interest in guiding the younger students at the school through the creation of a forum not only for career guidance and counseling for these young students but also for them to have the opportunity of interacting with the old boys from time to time.
The most visible role of Old Boys Association everywhere is in the improvement of the physical facilities of their alma mater in order to meet with the demands and economic forces of the present days. In many older institution in this country, the Old Boys Association have almost towered highest in the building of such infrastructures as the laboratories, libraries, hostels and classrooms or in the provision of such educational inputs as electric generating plants, school vans, trophies, books, sporting equipments.
These feats achieved after pulling together the resources of the alumni and streamlining the priority needs of the school. By now, the Old Boys of B. M. G. S Adazi-Nnukwu have succeeded in many diverse sectors of the economy and can therefore not ignore the titanic problems for our alma mater, the prevailing austere circumstances not with-standing.
The above illustrations are to demonstrate the serious need for us all the alumni to refine our direction and evolve a dynamic machinery in order to sustain and advance the progress of our alma mater and ourselves, by virtue of which institutions and individuals multiply and succeed.
Our alma mater should not be considered the proverbial broom which on needs only when one’s room is dirty, to be dropped after sweeping. And like the domestic broom, it will inevitably and often willingly help again.
Thanks and God bless us all.
Originally written by:
Mark A. Anyadufu
(Culled from, B. M. G. S Silver Jubilee Magazine, April 1985)
