Bridge Pupils Got Top Scores in Common Entrance

Funmi Ogundare

The National Examination Council (NECO), recently released the 2021 National Common Entrance (NCE) examination results for admission into Unity schools, which showed that pupils from Bridge schools performed exceptionally for the third consecutive year.

They beat last year’s top score of 190 by five marks which gave more children the opportunity of gaining admission into top Unity schools in the country, on merit to fulfil their dreams.

Master Christopher Inyanda, 10, from Bridge Aderenle Academy in Badagry had a score of 195 out of 200, placing him among the best performing pupils in the competitive national examination.

Inyanda who intends to become a pilot in future, stated that he is grateful for the support he received from his parents and teachers, while attributing his remarkable performance to the quality of teaching he received at Bridge.

“I like the method of teaching at Bridge and how my teachers always encouraged me and my friends to aim for the best and study hard.”
Speaking about her own performance,
a pupil from Bridge Hosannah Academy, Miss Fiyinfoluwa Omale,10, who emerged the best performing female pupil with an incredible 191 out of 200 expressed excitement about her success.

“I am so proud of my success and my parents are really excited! I worked really hard and got a lot of help from my teachers in preparing for the exams which made me confident that I would do well.”
She acknowledged the efforts of her favourite teacher, Mr. Richard Akinyomi for ensuring that she understood all that she was taught in the classroom.

She hopes to become an engineer so that she can build things that would make life easier for people. She is set to join other students at her choice secondary school, Queens College, which she believes is a step closer to achieving her future dreams.

Bridge pupils from Osun State also recorded impressive performances in the examination.

A pupil from Bridge Academy in Madakeke in Osun State, who is on the Fadahunsi Education Foundation (FEF) scholarship, MasterThomas Akhigbe scored 179 and hopes to continue his secondary education at Federal Science and Technical College, Ilesha.

Other top performers in the examination include Chijindu Inyadike from Bridge Ganmo Academy in Ojo scored 185 while Blessing Iwuchukwu from Bridge Babatunde Laja Academy in Alimosho, scored 184 and Susan Ike from Bridge Awelewa Academy in Alimosho scored an impressive 183 marks.

The children said the learning materials provided by their schools and the support from their teachers and parents contributed immensely to their academic excellence.

Commenting on the results, the Regional Director of Academics Rhoda Odigboh said, “knowing that we are supporting children to excel in our country inspires those working at Bridge each and every day.
Now, with three years of successful results, we are confident that what we are doing in the underserved communities of Lagos and Osun States is working, and this motivates us to work even harder and impact more children.

“A good education will give children the opportunity to change their future and hopefully the future of the community and Nigeria at large. Every child deserves that.”

Odigboh also attributed the success to the ongoing support from the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in Bridge communities particularly the community leaders and parents groups, saying, “we are grateful to the community leaders and parents in our academies for the support and encouragement that they have extended to us over the years.

“The results showed that the length of time a child spends in a Bridge school has a significant impact on their performance. Pupils who have been at Bridge for three or more years emerged among the top performers in the country.”

Bridge has been supporting community schools across Lagos since 2015. 2019 marked the first year the school network entered pupils for the exam; with the pupils performing extremely well. The impressive results in the Nigerian national exams, now for three consecutive years, provides further evidence that Bridge provides a strong education to children in Nigeria. They strengthen and build upon the preponderance of evidence showing equity of learning being gathered across Bridge community schools every year.