The Delta State Commissioner for Lands Survey and Urban Planning, Mr Raymos Guanah, has stressed the need for Old Boys to mentor students of their alma-mater.

Guanah made the proposal while addressing Old Boys of the Western Boys High School, (WBHS) Benin-City, at the first re-union meeting of the boys in Daltex Texas, U.S.A.

In the text of his speech released to newsmen in Asaba last  Saturday, the commissioner said that students’ mentoring would help improve their educational ability.

He said that like the Delta government was presently doing, the Old Boys of the school should form themselves into groups and take charge of specific subjects.

Guanah said that the old boys should also pull their resources together and take special interest in particular subjects in either the JSS or SSS level and mentor the students in their areas of interest.

He said that this would give the students a sense of being loved, and would ginger their interest in their chosen fields whether in the Arts or Sciences.

Guanah recounted his days as a student in WBHS, and said that the commitment of students to their lectures had waned over the years.

He attributed the problem to the lack of interest and motivation from those who would have served as role models to the students.

“ That is why I am proposing the ideal of mentoring of these students, as they will see their mentors as their role models”.

“Mentoring of students is working in Delta and l know if it is adopted for WBHS it will work too,’’ the commissioner said.

He said that to also advance the teaching and learning culture in the school, Old Boys in the employee of the Edo Post Primary Education Board should be posted to the school to teach.

The commissioner said that teachers, who are Old Boys of the school, were likely to have a psychological attachment to the school.

He also said that there was the need to have a data of those who have passed out of WBHS from inception, adding that, it would help in knowing the numerical strength of the old students.

He further called on other old students to find ways of tackling what he called the daily and continuous decay of infrastructure in the school.

Guanah told the gathering to look into the area of developing a standard library and computer laboratory, as well as equipping the present science laboratories for the school.

He also said that the issue of setting up a nursery and primary school, as well as constructing an edifice as part of the old students’ contribution to their alma-mater should be looked into.

He said that this had become imperative as the school now was a shadow of its former self, adding that the level of infrastructural decay was beyond imagination.