Name Sheila Tuer | Died October 21, 2012 | |
Sheila Solarin (died October 21, 2012) (née Mary Tuer) was a British woman married to the late Tai Solarin. She was named an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 2007 for services to education in Nigeria. She ran Mayflower School on behalf of her late husband Tai Solarin.
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War service
Sheila met her husband while both were in the forces following the World War II.
Education establishments in Nigeria
In 1952 they decided to move to his native Nigeria, and both worked in Molusi College ijebu Igbo.
But they disagreed with the politics of the day and religious discrimination in schools, and decided to build their own in a town called Ikenne.
On 27 January 1956, Tai Solarin and his wife founded the first and only secular school in Nigeria, Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State.
The Students' Second Home was established by Sheila and her husband in 1977, a boarding house which serves more than two thousand students of the three public high schools in Ikenne town. Also complementing the now state-owned Mayflower School, was the establishment of the privately owned Mayflower Junior School, the primary school arm of the Mayflower institution, a citadel of secular education for self-reliance and all round excellence.
Using breeze blocks made from clay they constructed two classrooms, each able to accommodate 36 pupils.The student also helped in construction of more class rooms .
"They had their bunks at the back of the class, and the desks at the front'" said Sheila who has been an English teacher for 50 years. "We didn't ask anybody what their ethnic background or religion was, we simply wanted to provide an education for all the children in the area."
The school became more popular, and Sheila and her husband were forced to extend, making it one of the biggest in the country.
They even made the furniture on site, much of it using wood from trees Sheila planted herself.
She headed the Mayflower School on behalf of her late husband Tai Solarin. Sheila officially retired two years ago at 80 and passed much of the responsibility on to her children.
Personal life
Sheila and her husband had two children Corin and Tunde Solarin. She died on 21 October 2012, at the age of 88.