St. Anthony's Catholic High School or SACHS is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

high school established in 1996 and began full operations in 1997. It is situated in Ijofi,

Ilesa Ilesa () is an ancient town located in the Osun State, southwest Nigeria; it is also the name of a historic kingdom (also known as Ijesha) centred on that village. The state is ruled by a monarch bearing the title of the Owa Obokun Adimula of Ij ...

Osun State Osun State (; yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun), occasionally known as the State of Osun by the state government, is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states, to the north by Kwara State, to the south by Ogun S ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

History

As a result of persistent request from parents of pupils in the local

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Nursery and Primary School and from the general public, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Osogbo decided to establish a private Secondary School in

. By October 1996, a temporary site was established at the compound of the Ijofi-Ilesa Franciscan nursery and primary school, which provided some classrooms and basic facilities, pending the development of the permanent site of about 60 plots of land, comprising about ten

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ab ...

along Iyemogun Road. Preparatory classes for prospective students commenced in October, 1996 with about 100 students who had written and passed the

entrance examination An entrance examination is an examination that educational institutions conduct to select prospective students for admission. It may be held at any stage of education, from primary to tertiary, even though it is typically held at tertiary stage. ...

. By January 1997, the proprietor the Most Reverend Bishop Gabriel 'Leke Abegunrin, gave his approval for the establishment of the school, and the school was officially named. Application was made to the Ministry of Education at the Osun State Government for official approval, resulting in a series of official inspections being conducted by the

State Ministry of Education State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. Provisional approval was given by the government in a letter dated 20 January 1997, and the school was formally opened as the first catholic private high school in Ijesaland, and the first to be established by the newly created Osogbo catholic diocese.

Officials

Reverend Mary O. Gerard and Chief Lawrence Ade Ogedengbe were appointed as the first Administrator and Principal of the school.

Aims and Objectives

To conform with governmental policy on education, the aims and objectives of the school as detailed by the founding fathers include : *Preparation of students for useful living in the society and for higher education *Providing qualitative higher education opportunity for the increasing number of primary school pupils, irrespective of sex, social status, religion and ethnicity.

Pioneer Set

The pioneer members of the school include Barr. Demilade Olaosun, Deboye Ifaturoti, Dr. Foluso Ajani, Dr. Kuteyi Opeyemi, Alex Oni, Afolabi Wright, Segun Ayoola, Dele Olakunle, Oyeyemi Ayeni, Lekan Olatunji, Evangeline Babatunde to mention a few.

External links

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Osogo diocese
Secondary schools in Osun State Roman Catholic secondary schools in Nigeria Educational institutions established in 1997 Ilesha 1997 establishments in Nigeria {{Nigeria-school-stub