During my primary school days, I had the privilege of having three sets of classmates.
I don't know what informed our parents' decision to enroll us into primary school at the age of 5. After about two or three years, the school authority decided to properly place us according to our ages. My siblings, like Abdulrahman Barau and I, were placed two classes back.
Initially, we started primary 1 in the same class as Labaran Tukur, Isa Jibrin and many others who are not on facebook. Then, we were placed in the class one year behind us and after about a term or so, we were placed yet another class back. There, we found ourselves in the same class as Engr. Mohammed Nur Khalil, Bashir Dan-gusau, Nasiru Saulawa and later, Dikko Abdullahi joined us in primary 5.
In primary 5, about 10 of us were promoted to class 6 to join the next class and try our luck to sit for the Common Entrance Examination, with the intention that if we passed, we could proceed to secondary school and those who failed could revert to their classes and try again at the appropriate time. At the time, it was unheard of, even shameful, to go to secondary school "through the window", that is, without passing or sitting for the exam, what we used to call "CK-CK", an abbreviated Hausa word, "Cuku-Cuku". The school authority had worked out this kind of special promotion because if you registered for the graduation exam and failed, you couldn't go back to the class immediately behind you, because by that time they had already been registered to be the next to take the exam and you had to go back two classes behind, losing two years.
But the 10 of us that were given that special promotion, had to use the names of the set immediately ahead of us, because their names were already registered for the exam and at the time, they had already proceeded to secondary schools, leaving a vacuum as they were also promoted specially, like we were.
Fortunately, all 10 of us passed the exams and proceeded to secondary schools, using other people's names. Some of us later changed our names while others are still using such names.
In the end, those two steps backward and one step forward in the primary school ended up placing us in the appropriate class, commensurate with our age.
The group photograph was taken in our 3rd term in primary 5, 1973, and we proceeded to secondary school afterwards. That's me shaking hands with my friend, Bashir Dan-gusau (now a Retired Major) and my brother, Abdulrahman Barau, holding up prayer beads... 🤣. Some of the teachers in the picture include Waziri Umar Farouk, a one time permanent secretary in Katsina State, who had just completed his Higher School Certificate, HSC, before proceeding to the university. And the little children in the front row were my cousin, Prof. Ahmed Mohammed of BUK, and my uncle, Bashir Barau, who joined the picture for fun.