C.M.S. Grammar School is Nigeria’s first secondary school, established in June 1859 by Church Missionary Society, a Christian organization dedicated to the promotion of the faith. Herbert Macaulay’s father, Thomas Babington, as founder, had served as the school’s first principal. Primary schools in Lagos at this time were not up to ten. Expectedly, it was the school that produced the country’s first sets of educated elites. Its early introduction of science courses at its secondary education level started the bias for science that was imminent several decades after, in Nigerian secondary schools even though large-scale scientific innovations remains scanty among students today.
C.M.S. Grammar School moved to its present location at Bariga from Cotton House in Marina and Odulami Street and its present address is Akoka Road, Bariga, Lagos. A large part of its space was lost in 1979 due to an unfavorable government policy and the school is today in the middle of a very busy Lagos street. The history of the old school has been celebrated in a book published at its 150th anniversary. The school has a science laboratory built in 1929 and boarding facilities.
