The Nigerian Military School came into being on 20th May 1954 with an initial intake of thirty boys known as the “First Platoon” who were sons and ward of serving military personnel. However it’s military� history can be traced to 1951 when the idea of establishing “Boys Company” along the same pattern of the Boys Wing of British Army was conceived for each of the West African Colonies Namely: the Gambia, Gold Cost (Ghana), Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

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In May 1954 this idea came into being in Nigeria and the Boys Company was established as full fledged training institution under the regimentation and administration of the defunct Nigeria Regimental Training Centre (NRTC) Now DEPORT NA and under the command of Captain WU Bassey (Late), later Brigadier General one of the first Nigerian Commissioned Military Officer. Two year later, the student’s population rose to 200. by January 1957, the aim of the school became the production of ‘middle cadre skilled manpower’ to replace the departing British Colonial NCOs. Thus a lot of emphases was shifted and laid on academics. A year later, that is in 1958 ten boys from the school sat for the overseas Armed Forces General Certificate Examination. Their performance was impressive and the School following that changed to School Certificate Status.

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In 1960, the name “Boys Company” was changed to “NigerianMilitarySchool” with four houses namely; Enugu, Ibadan, Kaduna, and Lagos House. To boost academic Excellency, major Wakeman, a graduate, was appointed from the British Army Education Corps as Commanding Officer in 1962. The School therefore commenced five set years training programme as a secondary school. In 1965 the first set of boys wrote the WAEC Examination in which they performed creditably well. Since then, the school’s performance in such examination has been excellent.

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The school from its establishment to date has produced numerous Senior Military officers and Senior Staff in both Government and Private sectors.

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Visit� http://www.nmszaria.org/about.php� for more information.

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