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SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST NURSERY & PRIMARY
SCHOOL
The only educational institution in Calabar, the conference headquarters, is
the Seventh-day Adventist Nursery & Primary School. It is owned and run by
Calabar
Church. Established in 1996 with 7 pupils, using the church vestry. The school soon grew to 21 attracting more than 80% non-Adventists. The communities around were happy,
they wondered why with such enriched Adventist education policy we did not establish the school, forty years since the Adventists
missionaries came to Calabar! Most families visited the school promising to enroll
their wards by the next session. One university lecture prefers this humble school
to the old established University staff school owned by the University of Calabar.
According to him, he prefers his children to receive Adventist education. Others who have heard or encountered Adventist education
abroad and elsewhere came up to encourage the school.
One surprising but revealing fact that the babe-school reveals was that, while for about forty years the church
had existed, and lifting Jesus high in her church activities, the community around had an entirely different concept about
the church. They believed the church was a cult!! Associated with the Apollonius
Temple of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC), which happened to share the same boundary
with the church. In fact one parent asked:
Will you people teach my child about Jesus Christ? She did that after
another parent had warned her that she was going to initiate her child in a secret society! Weeks after, a parent came to
thank the school for teaching his little child how to pray. According to him the child is now teaching the senior members
of the family to pray at meal, bedtime, and morning devotion. Unfortunately the school soon attracted the envy of some private
schools around and they solicited the local school authority to close down the school.
The authority demanded that a school block be built separately from the church building, and that a formal
approval be sort for from the government before the school can be permitted to operate.
Where will the money come from? Truly there was no money! Yet there was
determination and commitment to succeed. The church could not keep silence in
the face of the then galloping strikes, and moral decadent rampant in the circular schools.
Our cradles needed a future. We needed not just a school but also a missionary
institution that will build moral defense against the decaying society: A school with evangelistic undertone.
Some determined members gave all they could which meant very little compared to the cost of materials and labour. Most Youths volunteered their labour. It
was an opportunity for some of us to learn on the job new skills. Some of us became emergency block molders, masons and carpenters,
giving our voluntary services. But God was truly on our side. Soon the building was
ready for roofing.
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| The first school block under construction. |
The Church prayed and God turned the heart of the local school
authority in our favour. Although we lost some of our initial pupils, the school
regroup with 11 pupils.
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| The eleven pupils |
By January 2000 we received a
formal approval. March 2004 the local authority concluded the final inspection for upgrading to a full-fledged Nursery and
Primary School in readiness for the First School Leaving Certificate Examination.
The school has in her enrollment now 90 pupils. Some of the pioneer
pupils are now in public secondary schools. The government through the National
Youth Service Corp has been sending in corpers to teach in the school. Currently
there are 3 Youth corpers teaching in the school. One of them after attending the Don Schnieders Satellite Evangelism beamed
from Aba,
at our local down link site in November 2003, and Bert Leverett in Calabar City Evangelism January 31 to February 14, finally
decided for baptism and was baptized by Pastor H B Smith during the National Pulpit exchange programme in March 2004. She
is very committed to her new found faith!
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| The school as at 2002/2003 school year |
Four other teachers added up to make a 7 man teaching staff for the school.
The school has added a five-class room block. To the glory of God, the school was able to return for the first time
a tithe of N47,483.70 for 2002/2003 school year. This is outside the teachers
tithe returned individually from their salaries to the church.
Pupils from the school enjoy watching childrens programme on
3ABN, especially Kids Time, and Tiny Tots. Fortunately in November 2003, just
after the Don Schniders Satellite programme at Aba, Lonnie and his wife Rosemary Shelton of 3ABN were in Calabar to interview some of our pupils. The pupils and their parents were full of excitement as they viewed the playback latter-on
on 3ABN.
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| Some pupils interviewed by Lonnie and Rosemary Shelton of 3ABN |
The concern of local school supervising authority is the need to expand the school so that more pupils could
benefit from the Adventist education. They have continually asked where we are
going to locate the secondary school section. These are challenges ahead of the
school. But with God we know all things are possible!
One great thanks to God is that, the entry of the school has made the church, community-friendly!
For how you could be a part of this progress, contact:
SDAN/P SCHOOL BOARD
101 Goldie/Marian
Road
P O Box 201
Calabar
NIGERIA
Phone 234 087 238641
087 233103
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