1. CONTEXT

There has been a decrease in the number of out of school children: from 100 million, down to 57 million, with Sub- Saharan African enjoying the best record of improvement of any region since the Millennium Development Goals were established. Still, we have a lot of work ahead of us - We not only need to decrease further, the number of out-of-school children, we also need to improve the quality of education children receive globally. 

Despite an improvement, as indicated earlier, the UN has stated that Sub-Saharan Africa suffers the most in terms of lack in access to education, with women and girls being the most affected demographic. To solve this problem, the UN proposed the Sustainable Development Goals, with education being number 4 on the list. The UN hopes to encourage governments to place education as priority in both policy and practice, lobby for firm commitments in providing free primary school education for all, encourage private sector investments, and urge NGOs to partner with youth and other groups to foster the importance of education within local communities. UN has therefore set aside 10 goals under education to be achieved by 2030, all of which can be accessed here.

3. OUR SOLUTIONS

We have therefore designed the following programs to improve student access to education: 1) A specialised school program for low-income communities, 2) A vocational training program that identifies the needs and capabilities of communities and provides appropriate effective solutions and, 3) Running a Trust-Fund to provide qualified students from low-income communities with financial aid to support their education.

2. RATIONALE

This is where we come in. As Google.org points out, students from low-income communities have to learn with less; often with materials that are culturally irrelevant or out-of-date. Context matters a lot and we want to use our understanding of how local communities function to design education that not only seeks to provided children with equal learning opportunities but also prepares them to smoothly transition into better school environments. We have some experience working with children from low-income communities and using Sabiu Rabiu as a case study, we understand children are very capable of excelling in school, given the right environment, support and resources.

McKinsey points out having the right blend of teacher-directed and inquiry-based instruction provides the best outcome for students. It also points out that an improved teaching quality is more important than increasing the number of hours students spend in school. Therefore, striking the right balance of school hours + teacher-directed and inquiry-based teaching is essential to helping students attain good academic results.

With this in mind, and using years worth of experience, inquiries and research, we have crafted a comprehensive list of proposed solutions that contribute in increasing the number of Nigerian children with access to good quality education.