MD School celebrates 40th anniversary of excellence in education

MD School, the first inclusive private school in Lagos, is ready to bang the drum to honor the legacy of its pioneering vision, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary of nurturing young minds towards excellence.

Speaking in a pre-event chat during the week, Mrs Omolara Adedugbe, Executive Director of the school, said the celebration of the school’s 40th anniversary is to honor the school’s pioneering vision of inclusive education and the achievement of excellence.
“It is a celebration of the courage of our vision and the belief that it is possible.”
He said: “a celebration of the endurance, resilience and deep empathy we have poured into cultivating so many young minds towards excellence, over the last 40 years. To the glory of God, I believe we have done well.”

Recalling the difficult journey of the school since its inception, Mrs Adedugbe said the school has achieved so much in 40 years of its existence, with branches now in Oko-Oba and Ifako-Ogba in Lagos respectively.

While she highlighted the courage, commitment and resilience that it took to build the school’s legacy of compassion, deep empathy and a legacy of excellence for which it is now known, she said it wasn’t easy at first.

“It was difficult at first. We started with children with hearing problems. Then, when officials from the Ministry of Education noticed that we were registered as an inclusive school, they encouraged us to bring normal children.” That’s how we started, he said.

However, to her dismay and so unexpectedly, “as soon as we did that, the problem started. Many parents didn’t want their children to be associated with children with disabilities, so they started withdrawing them from school.
“Parents don’t want to know that their children are going to a school for children with special needs. They didn’t want their children to be associated with children with disabilities. So from the beginning there was the issue of stigma,” she said.

However, over the years, although the mindset is gradually changing, he revealed that the model of the school has also undergone changes. The school now has more normal children, along with a program for children with special needs.
“So, alongside our regular school curriculum, what we now have is a special plan for these children we call neuro-divergent children, when they come in. We have now adopted a model called the Individualized Education Program (IEP), which allows them to learn at their own pace.”

According to her, what truly gladdens her heart is that in 40 years of its existence, the MD school has succeeded in no small way in helping to reshape the social mindset and set the agenda for a more compassionate community where diversity is normalized rather than feared.