ABOUT THE SCHOOL

HILLSIDE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

1 IMAN STREET, CALABAR

175, ORON ROAD, UYO

MISSION STATEMENT

To empower pupils/students to acquire necessary skills and competence needed for success in a rapidly changing society through sound, quality and affordable education.

VISION STATEMENT

To become a world class educational institution where pupils/students who pass through her can favourably compete with their counterparts in the world.  

BRIEF HISTORY

Hillside International Schools started as a necessity in 1971. After the Civil War (1967 – 1970), education in Nigeria suffered a set back like many other sectors in the country at that time. Soon after wards, the government of Nigeria, through the policy of nationalization, took over schools which were hitherto owned and run by voluntary agencies like the Catholic Church. The effects of the war and the consequence of that policy brought about a fall in the standard of education in Nigeria.

This prompted late Mrs. Rosemary Uwemedimo, a British lady, to establish Hillside Preparatory School in 1971. The school, located at 1, Iman Street, Calabar (then, number 5), later changed her name to Hillside International School. On page four of The Hillside Echo, a magazine published by Hillside International School, Calabar in the late 1970s, we read:

The international element remains strong. Many of the Nigerian pupils were, in fact born and brought up abroad and arrive here with English or American accents, still thinking of Liverpool or Texas as ‘home’. In addition, there are or have been pupils from the following countries: - Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Poland, Israel, Romania, Egypt, Switzerland, Cameroon Republic, Ghana, England, Scotland, Spain, Australia, India, Ceylon, Canada and China! At first the school taught mostly at the kindergarten and infant school levels, but the senior section has quickly increased in size and by now there are quite a few “Hillside graduate” at secondary schools.

The school was therefore founded in 1971 in Calabar with a vision different from what was obtainable in schools in Nigeria at that time. For instance, the founder believed, and rightly so, that children are better formed in the early stages of their lives and so, Hillside International Schools, Calabar was known to have accepted children at a very tender age.

From a little school in Efut Community in Calabar, the school grew to become one of the most popular schools in Calabar in the 1980s. With the creation of Akwa Ibom State in 1987, the Uyo branch followed in 1988. This new branch in Uyo, like the first in Calabar, witnessed an unprecedented growth and patronage from the rank and class of the society.

In 2011, the administration of the school changed and a new administration took over with His Grace, Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Effiong Ekuwem, Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Calabar, and the Catholic Church overseeing the current administration. Though the founder of the school, Mrs. Rosemary Uwemedimo passed on in 2012, her children are committed to ensuing that the schools run and provide a relatively affordable but good quality education to Nigerian children. This, they believe, is a way of giving back to the society that offered them the pedestal for education and eventual progress in life.

The testimonies of our ‘graduates’ in various secondary schools and in other advanced educational institutions and endeavours speak of our commitment to maintaining the standard that we have been known for over the years.