By Oyewale Blessing and Adebayo Similoluwa
There was once a boy named Bayo, he lived in Wuse District. He was the fifth of the eight children of his parents, who were poor farmers. The parents could only afford for the first two children to go to school while the rest of the children would have to work on the farm. But Bayo was brilliant and he was interested in school, but his parents could not afford it, so he told his neighbour about his desire to go school. The neighbour was moved by his story and so they devised a plan to tell his parents if they could allow their son Bayo to escort their daughter to school and his parents accepted.
That alone gave Bayo a golden opportunity. He and the girl would walk 6 kilometres to school. Although he wasn’t allowed to sit in class with the other students, he was given the chance to listen by the window but not for long as he would have to go home.
This frequent visit to the school made Bayo able to read, making him the third child to read in his family. When he saw that school was fun to attend, he decided to work to save enough to make him a bonafide student and not just a visitor.
He would help the other farmers who practised commercial farming i.e. planting crops and raising animals to make money. He also became a labourer on a site where he would help them take sand, blocks, and bags of cement to where they were to be used. Within the space of one year, he was able to save enough to take him through school, but he didn’t have the money to purchase a uniform, so he had to wear his old tattered clothes to school.
At first, he couldn’t adapt to the new environment because of how he dressed differently from others, but soon that fear disappeared as he was soon discovered to be a brilliant boy. He got high marks in all exercises he did in the class; he even got to the point of being the highest-ranked student in his district.
This is the story of a boy who took himself through school when his parents couldn’t afford a pen, textbooks, or a bag and other educational materials he needed.
MORAL LESSONS: Never give up.
Blessing & Similoluwaare of Skyline Scholars Secondary School, Magboro, Ogun State
