9-Year-old Boy becomes Nigeria’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional

A primary six pupil of Role Model School, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, has emerged one of the youngest pupils to obtain the Microsoft Certified Professional certificate, SAMUEL AWOYINFA reports

A nine-year-old pupil of Role Model School, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, Jomiloju Tunde-Oladipo, has emerged the youngest Nigerian Microsoft certified professional.

He came tops among 21 pupils who sat for the professional examination in Lagos.

He is now a Microsoft office specialist in office word 2010.

Jomiloju scored 769 out of 1,000 in the examination held in August.

In his examination score report, the slim-built boy performed well in Sharing and Maintaining Documents, Formatting Content, Applying Page Layout, and Reusable Content, among other subjects.

By the feat, Jomiloju has joined the league of young Microsoft certified professionals, including Nigeria’s 10-year-old Anjolaoluwa Seyi-Ojo; an eight-year-old Indian, Lavishnashree, and two Pakistanis, named Arfa and Thobani.

Microsoft Certified Professional is a certification programme provided by Microsoft Corporation. The certification is tailored towards building skills on Microsoft business solutions, focusing on client-end operating systems such as windows XP, Vista, Windows7 among others.

Jomiloju, whose certificate was signed by the Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, Steven Ballmer, says he did not achieve this feat easily, but through persistence and hard work.

He says, “It was not all that easy, because I had attempted the examination last year, I did not make it then. But I remained focused and I put in a lot of hard work.

“At home and in the school, I am always on the computer. After school hours, if am not doing anything, I will go to my Information Communication Technology teacher, to learn more.”

Jomiloju sat for the examination when he was in primary Five.

Relating his experience, Jomiloju says, “In all, I answered 20 questions, after answering a question, the computer takes you to another one. And at times, there will be an instruction to skip the next question. But the programme still directs one to come back to those questions one had earlier skipped.”

But was he really scared having failed once to meet the cut off mark? He stresses that he was really afraid due to his earlier experience but he was optimistic of having success, because according to him, he has prepared well.

He also gives kudos to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tunde-Ladipo, for their support and imbuing in him the ‘can do’ spirit in achieving the success.

He says, “My mum and dad were very supportive. They always tell me never to give up and eventually it paid off. Moreover, they had bought the latest Dell laptop. Again, I am always fascinated about computer. The way it works and the process, and the way it organises data.”

Jomiloju who is a left-handed writer, according to his parents, has been a gifted child. He has always been in love with gadgets. His mum, Toyin, says, “Jomiloju since he was baby had loved playing with gadgets, he was never interested in toys. He would pick up remote controls for both TV and air-conditioner, and he would correctly use them for their specific functions.”

His father adds, “It is not that we are unnecessarily indulging him but he is such a brilliant child. He’s multi-talented. He plays the saxophone, he’s good on keyboard, he acts very well and he’s a good swimmer.

“Each term, he participates in school drama and quiz. He also gets prizes in other subjects, apart from ICT.”

Does Jomiloju want to pursue a career in software/hardware project like Bill Gates and Steve Job? Spotting an innocent smile, the youngster nods his head in affirmative.

His school administrator, Mrs. Adesimbo Banjo, who speaks glowingly about Jomiloju, says the feat recorded by her pupil is a tonic for other pupils.

His ICT teacher, Mr. Mathew Alo, also commends Jomiloju for the feat.

He adds, “Jomiloju was taught all the necessary things he needed to know and he came out as the most outstanding among 20 others from different schools in Lagos.

His class teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth Ogunrinola, says Jomiloju takes his studies seriously. She states, “He is not only good in ICT, but in other subjects. He is hard working and well behaved.”

For Jomiloju, he’s not resting on his oars yet, as he says he is still going to seek more Microsoft certifications.

“I still want to sit for more examinations. I will still do excel and power points,” he says.