Teach for Nigeria Honours Fellows, Alumni and Supporters
Nigeria has the highest number of people living in poverty in the world and the largest number of out-of-school children. In addition, 60% of Nigerian children who finish primary school cannot read. Education is essential to socioeconomic mobility; it improves productivity and leads to better income and livelihood. Nigeria’s poverty problem is also, significantly, a crisis of education since education is one of the best ways to address income inequality.
According to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Nigeria has a shortage of about 237,000 primary school teachers, the available teachers are poorly paid and largely unmotivated. Also, the teacher attendance rate is as low as 30% in some public schools.
Teach for Nigeria, a non-profit organisation founded in 2017, is focused on solving some of the quantity and quality problems of Nigerian education. Every year, Teach for Nigeria recruits promising graduates from various disciplines and trains them to teach in underserved schools in low-income communities through a two-year rigorous and highly-selective fellowship. The two-year fellowship hones their leadership skills and prepares them for various leadership engagement post-fellowship. Since 2017, Teach for Nigeria has trained and deployed over 250 fellows to 92 schools in three states, who are impacting over 12,000 students.
To mark its third-year anniversary and appreciate the individuals who have been part of the journey, Teach for Nigeria held a Celebratory Ceremony at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island on Friday the 7th of February. It was attended by members of the Board of Trustees, Ambassadors, Fellows, Alumni, Partners and Supporters.
In attendance were major key stakeholders of the organisation including key directors – Alero Ayida-Otobo; Board Member, Teach For Nigeria, Segun Olukoya; Board Member, Teach For Nigeria, Ayo Olajiga; and Board Member, Teach For Nigeria, Badru Akeem; 2019 Fellow of Teach For Nigeria.
During the event, attendees shared testimonies on the impact of Teach for Nigeria in solving education inequity in the country. Alao Daniel, a 10-year-old Primary 6 pupil of Baptist Primary School, Abeokuta, gave a speech about the remarkable impact of Teach for Nigeria Fellows on him and his classmates. Alao emerged as Second Place winner in the 2019 Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition.
Fellow of the Year – Gobi Daniel.
Gobi Daniel is a 2018 Teach For Nigeria Fellow teaching in L.G.E.A. Sheik Gumi Model Primary School, Tudun Wada, Kaduna State. He is a graduate of Business Management and currently a Postgraduate student at Babcock University, Ogun State. Gobi is a passionate educator, philanthropist, and social innovator. He is driving transformational change in the education space in Kaduna through several impactful initiatives in his classroom and community. He is the convener of the Clothe A Kid campaign, an initiative aimed at making decent school uniforms and sandals available for over 140 kids in Tundun Wada community.
Alumnus of the Year – Henry Anumudu.
Henry Anumudu is a graduate of Philosophy from University of Ibadan, and a pioneer Fellow of Teach For Nigeria, who taught for two years – 2017 to 2019, as a full-time classroom teacher in Ebenezer African Church Primary School, a public primary school in Ita-Oshin, Abeokuta, Ogun State and led visible impact on his pupils and the community he served in. He founded Sharing Life Africa – a community that supports quality education by creating access to economic opportunities for women in low-income communities and by directly supporting underserved schools. He has spoken at events such as the National Educational Innovation Summit and Edu360 by Union Bank and has been featured in newspapers such as Business Insider & ThisDay. He is focused on building a world where children everywhere, especially in Africa, will have access to quality education and the skills to build successful futures for themselves.
Platinum Supporter of the Year – Lai Koiki
Lai Koiki is the founder of Greensprings Schools and ambassador of Teach For Nigeria. She is an Educational Instructor, Leader and Administrator, with over thirty years of strategic leadership.
Lai Koiki studied Geography at the University of Lagos and then went on to study Early Childhood education in the UK. She returned to Nigeria and took up a job as a teacher in a private school after which, she set up Greensprings in 1985 with just 3 children. Greensprings began as a pre-school and later included a creche. Over 25 years later, it remains one of the most respected and highly rated privately owned schools in Nigeria. Mrs Koiki is very committed to giving back to the sector. Mrs Koiki runs the Greensprings Open House, a forum for teachers and school owners to discuss and share ideas and best practices in school management and effective methods of teaching and learning, which thousands have benefitted from.
She offers Greensprings facilities for the 6-week residential training institute for Teach For Nigeria fellows. There has been a total of three training institutes since 2017.
The Chief Executive Officer
Folawe Omikunle is the Chief Executive Officer of Teach For Nigeria. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Law and Diplomacy from Babcock University, and a Master’s degree from Diplomatic Academy of London, University of Westminster. Her passion for improving the education of disadvantaged children led her to join the Association of Private Educators in Nigeria (APEN) in 2013, taking up the position of Coordinator. Two months into her duties, she was promoted to Executive Secretary. As Executive Secretary, she organised and taught in various training workshops and professional development programs for educators and key government officials. In 2015, she joined Teach For Nigeria as Program Manager. A year later, she became the organisation’s CEO.
Pupil’s Testimonial
Alao Daniel, a 10-year-old primary 6 pupil of Baptist Primary School, Abeokuta giving a speech about the impact of the Teach for Nigeria Fellow on him and his classmates. He was the first runner up in the 2019 Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition. According to Alao, the Fellows whom he called ‘Angels’ have had remarkable impact in his life and those of his classmates.
Board Members
Segun Olukoya is Chief Operating Officer, Financial Services & Payments at Nextzon Business Services. He studied Economics at the University of Lagos and developed a career as a strategy consultant and financial services expert in organisations such as HEIRS Alliance and Accenture. A committed supporter of social causes, he received the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship in 2016. He joined the Board of Teach For Nigeria in 2016. He is the Program Director for the Lagos Angel Network and also a member of the Investment Committee of a leading Mutual Fund in Nigeria.
Alero Ayida-Otobo, Board Member
Alero is the founder of Incubator Africa Limited. She studied Human Sciences at the University of Oxford. Mrs. Alero is a reformer whose expertise straddles Education, Health, Government and Media. After building a career in the private sector in different capacities such as Head of Human Capital Management, United Bank for Africa Plc, Executive Director & Partner, Vic Lawrence & Associates Limited etc., she worked at the Federal Ministry of Education as Transformation Task Team Leader & Adviser to the Minister of Education.
She is passionate about systems transformation and raising social, educational and political reformers that would transform their spheres of Influence, organisations, and nations. My goal is to establish Reform Hubs across the continent of Africa from which Reform Teams in Education, Health, Government and Media are trained and supported to act as specialised change agents in their sphere of Influence. These Specialized Hubs act as a place of convergence of like-minded people, and their empowerment for effective implementation of change projects.
She is a Board Member of Teach for Nigeria.
