2022 PRINCIPAL ADDRESS AT VALEDICTORY AND PRIZE GIVING CEREMONY

ADDRESS BY THE PRINCIPAL OF DAME IRENE OKWUOSA MEMORIAL CONVENT, ORAIFITE, DR. JOY CHINWE NDEFO ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2022 CONFIRMATION, ENROLMENT & VALEDICTORY SERVICE AND PRIZE-GIVING CEREMONY HELD ON SUNDAY 24TH JULY, 2022.

It gladdens my heart to welcome you all to this great occasion. I wish you could see my heart for you to know how happy I am to have you present at this epoch- making event of Confirmation, Enrolment, 2nd Graduation and Prize-Giving Ceremony in the 2021/2022 Academic Session. I consider it a great privilege and blessing for our Proprietor, Father in the Lord and Bishop of the Diocese of Nnewi Rt Rev. Ndubuisi Obi to magnanimously approve and personally be part of this auspicious occasion, despite his very tight schedules. We are most blessed to have the goodwill and esteemed presence of the Honourable Commissioner for Education, Anambra state, Professor, Ngozi Chuma-Udeh. We are, also very delighted that our Benefactor, Engr Dr. Emeka Okwuosa (KSC) is present, with a team of Directors and friends of Sir Emeka Okwuosa Foundation. It is also a great privilege and God’s blessing that we were able to prepare for this day, especially for some of us, who are experiencing it for the first time in this prospective institution. The fact that you all came from far and near, in large numbers, is a clear testimony of God’s favour upon us all and an indication of your goodwill towards this noble Convent. You all are heartily welcomed in the mighty name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Education is a tool by which a society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job, skills and cultural norms. One of the most important benefits of education is that it improves personal lives and helps the society to run smoothly. It is the process of promoting and facilitating the acquisition of requisite knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs and habits for personal and societal development. It is one of the instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace and stability.

As a family, we give thanks for many things including the educational environment in which we operate. Our staff and the many talents they possess, but the greatest of these blessings is the student body entrusted into our care with all their talents and peculiarities. Here in DIOMeCO, we focus on ensuring that our students leave the Convent as complete as possible, having imbibed the values, virtues, knowledge, attitudes and skills to enable them contribute effectively in the society now and in future as well as possessing the necessary qualifications for furthering their education, whenever possible. As strong believers in holistic education, we view schooling as much more than the achievements in examination results.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we are happy today because we are counting some of our spiritual and physical blessings and achievements in this 2021/2022 Academic Session, despite the spate of uncertainties on our society. Today, a total of 26 students were confirmed and 18 enrolled into the Ladies and Girls’ Unique Fellowship, signifying their attainment of notable milestones in their lives as Christians, especially in the Anglican Communion. We congratulate them and say a big Aaaaaamen to the blessings pronounced upon them by our lord Bishop.

We are here, today, to formally bid farewell to our outgoing SS3 Students (Class 2022), most of who have spent six academic sessions in this prospective institution. We are also here, to assess our progress, count our blessings and appreciate students, staff and others who have displayed exemplary conduct in promoting the affairs of this noble Convent.

Also, DIOMeCO is blessed with a visionary Proprietor and Benefactor, institutional organs, godly men and women that have been strong pillars to her growth and development and we want to use this opportunity to specially appreciate some of them.

We acknowledge and congratulate students who, in this 2021/2022 Academic Session distinguished themselves from others in moral, academic and extra-curricular attainments. We congratulate all of them that have excelled in their respective subjects, especially those that occupied the first three positions. We pray God Almighty to enable them to sustain your achievements and take them to higher levels of excellent performances in life. We also encourage those who have not been so fortunate to work harder for better and prize-earning results.

Teaching is a ministry and most of our staff understand and respond positively to this call. Their efforts culminated to the Convent recording 99.6% (NECO) and 98% over all passes (WASSCE) in the 2021 external examinations. Hence, it should not be an overstatement to say that the quality and conduct of DIOMeCO’s workforce should earn the commendation of Oraifite Community and its environs. The staff members display high degree of stewardship that engender meaningful productivity from their services to the Convent. The Convent is deeply appreciative of their services, especially those who, have since their employment exceptionally distinguished themselves in diligent, dedicated, selfless, quality and productive services. We are constrained by meagre resources to tangibly appreciate these diligent and loyal staff. But we pray God Almighty to reward them abundantly and plead for their understanding that the Convent truly acknowledges and deeply appreciates

them.

Our young Convent is blessed with two great and visionary giants with a common passion for good and godly education, especially for the girl-child, our Proprietor and Bishop of the Diocese of Nnewi, Rt Rev. Ndubuisi Obi and our Benefactor, Sir Engr Dr. Emeka Okwuosa. We can’t but applaud and glorify God for giving us these 21st Century missionaries who by their determinations and good wills have set this institution on the path for speedy growth and development, laudable achievements and international acclamation.

My lord Bishop, Honourable Commissioner for Education, our dear Benefactor, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please permit me to use this singular opportunity to express our overwhelming joy in acknowledging and celebrating DIOMeCO’s Class of 2022, who completed their WAEC Examinations last month and will be concluding their NECO Examinations in a few days’ time. Today, they will be singing the Convent Anthem for the final time, as the Second Set of this Convent, before the school authority and their parents within this school premises, as a mark of respect and honour to be accorded to the Convent that trained them.

We sincerely thank the families of our students, especially those of these grandaunds for collaborating and cooperating with us in helping these girls to successfully pass through this very important level of education. We congratulate you; appreciate your labours of love; and pray that you will be rewarded bountifully by the Almighty God. Thank you for choosing DIOMeCO.

We congratulate you, our dear graduands for the unique milestones you covered during your stay in the Convent. We congratulate you for scaling through, where others failed and for staying to complete your secondary education at the Convent, whereas some of your mates left. We appreciate your gift of 30 chairs for use at the Chapel. It is also important that I remind you that the journey to success in your life has just begun. As you leave the Convent into the larger society, please remember who you are and where you come from always. Remember that as CHOSEN AND SHOT ARROWS, you must hit the expected targets. You have the corporate integrity of DIOMeCO and the ideals of Excellence, Wisdom and Godliness to represent and protect at all times. So, be careful with the kind of friends you make, especially as you move into tertiary institutions. Be wary of bad companies, because they corrupt good manners. Flee from every appearance of evil, such as godlessness, cultism, drug addiction, immorality and other acts of indiscipline and ignoble lifestyles. As our ambassador, please keep in touch and link up with your predecessors. We bid you farewell with high hopes and we pray that the grace