Igbara-Oke people who were predominantly hunters, farmers, warriors and nursing mothers, migrated from Ile-Ife under the able leadership of Arajaka. They took their origin from Olofin Odua of Ile-Ife. They left lle-Ife with a crown given by Obanifon as well as the sword of Olua, Alayere, Igba-Ifa, guns and farm implements.

The people stopped and stayed a while in several places before reaching the present site. Among such places are llesa, Alaaye, Igbo Onigbagbara, Onikolo and later settled down at Olowinrin for thirteen years where they suffered a great disaster.

At Olowinrin, Arajaka, the group leader, gave birth to baby twins Alarelu and Adeyigba under the Aigbara fig tree. An epidemic (smallpox) later broke out at Olowinrin, which claimed the life of their forefather, Arajaka and his close relations. This epidemic forced them to leave Olowinrin in two groups and go to different areas. While the Alarelu group departed southwestwards of Olowinrin to Odo-Oko, Adeyigba went southeastwards to Oke-Oko, where he met Oluji, a brave and daring hunter of his time. This area was later known and called IGBARA-OKE.

Immediately Oluji and the early settlers at Igbara-Oke knew that Adeyigba was from Odua Ancestry, they quickly elected him as their first Oba. Adeyigba's men, who were hunters and farmers, were given hunting fields and arable land to farm. News later reached Oba Adeyigba that his brother, Alarelu who went southwestwards of Olowinrin to Odo-Oko settled at Igbara-Odo as their Oba.

Igbara-Oke had recorded over two hundred years of healthy growth since Oba Adeyigba was first made her Oba. Administratively, he divided the town into six quarters, with a principal chief heading each one. These six principal chiefs had other minor chiefs under them who were given responsibilities for conflict resolution, peace, security, sacrifices to the gods, and welfare matters.

The town was involved in many Yoruba internecine wars against the Ibadans, ljesas, and Ekiti Parapos. Igbara-Oke rebuffed Ogedengbe's warriors and was consequently made an ally. She was victorious at the AKUNRIN and OBOTO wars.

The Igba-Ifa brought along from lle-Ife helped in the discovery of our ancestors' writings on the hard stones along the road to the Anglican Grammar School, and this served as a barrier on the path of the enemies, thereby disallowing them from achieving their goals during the war and peace periods.

Igbara-Oke, like many other towns in Western Nigeria, has invested heavily in educating her indigenes. Nearly every family can proudly present university-trained children, and Igbaras currently work across the country in various industries, including academics.

The Igbaras, wherever they are, have cultivated the culture of training their children up to university education, and this is made possible by the hard work of our forefathers who have laboured and tolled to ensure that education becomes part of our lives

The following piece of work is an excerpt from the book written ten by a foremost Igbara-Oke son who enjoyed early Western education, Late Isaac Adebayo Obe, titled: "The Origin of Education in Igbara-Oke".

The history of education in Igbara-Oke like any other part of Nigeria will not be complete without reference to early Christianity.

There is no record of how Christianity was introduced to Igbara-Oke but one of the history accounts verbally passed down by generations has it that it was one Mr Eso, an Ijesa trader (Osomalo) who introduced Christianity to Igbara-Oke. Mr Eso, according to this account, formed a society consisting of about 10 to 12 members called Alubere Society. Mr Eso sold "ABD" (Yoruba Language level 1 book) to each of the members; they met in a house on every Sunday where he preached the word of God to them and also taught them how to read the ABD (Yoruba alphabets).

In 1917, one Mr Ahonsi started the first school with about 8 boys as "Home Lesson Class" which was held for about two hours every day. Few months after the "Home Lesson Class" started, Mr Ahonsi was transferred and one Mr Timothy Olanrewaju Dawodu, a trained Catechist at St Andrew's College, Oyo, was brought from Akure to succeed him; also in 1917

the arrival of the new missionary, the Olowa of Igbara-Oke had approved the request of the then-church leaders for them to be allocated a big piece of land to build a mission house and possibly a classroom. A very rocky area which is the site where the St Paul's Anglican Church is located was allocated but was initially rejected by church leaders owing to its rocky condition. Having been persuaded by Rev, Adejumo, the land was reluctantly accepted.

The first building erected was a thatch-roofed mission house which Mr Dawodu occupied. The school was moved from a private home to the new mission house and Mr Dawodu, being a trained Catechist, was assigned to take charge of the church and school.

At the beginning of 1924, church services and schooling were conducted in corrugated-ironroofed buildings. One, Mr E. A. Odusile, a trained higher elementary teacher and a native of Ode-Omu, was the teacher. The highest class then was standard four. The first ever standard five final examination was conducted by Mr. J. W. A. Thorbum, a British Inspector of schools, in Ondo Province.

The quest to establish a secondary school was instigated by frustrations from sending IgbaraOke children to Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ilesa, or Igbajo schools. the ABD (Yoruba alphabets).

In 1934, one Rev Dallimore, a British Missionary who was transferred from St Andrew's College Oyo as superintendent of all CMS churches in Ekiti Division, planned that all CMS schools in Ekiti Division should read up to standard four in each town whilst standards five and six were to be completed at Ado-Ekiti.

Igbara-Oke church members were not pleased with this new directive of Rev Dallimore as they preferred that their children were given the opportunity to complete standards five and six at Igbara-Oke.

Reverend Dallimore refused to approve the request of Igbara- Oke for their children to complete standards five and six at home. However, after much pressure from the church members, Rev Dallimore then gave a condition that unless a total sum of £482 was deposited with him within two weeks, no approval would be given to the request. This amount was meant to cover the cost of paying salaries of teachers in a school with standards five and six status for two years. The Reverend's condition was designed to frustrate the Igbaras. Unfortunately for Rev Dallimore, the money was made available within a week.

Rev Dallimore received the money; he knew the game was over for him at that stage and approved Igbara-Oke's request. Igbara-Oke boys and girls who passed standard six examinations were not discriminated against as they were employed as pupil teachers and their Ekiti counterparts.

As more and more Igbara-Oke children were being sent to secondary schools in other towns, there was agitation for Igbara-Oke to have her own secondary school.

In 1956, the Igbara-Oke Citizens Federal Union (ICFU), a cultural organisation consisting of all Igbara-Oke sons and daughters residing outside Igbara-Oke, struggled vigorously to founding the present Anglican Grammar School in 1958. Igbara-Oke people were all responsible for the cost of running the secondary school for three consecutive years and three months before the Western Region Government took over its running in 1961.