Lekki Peninsula College Safe Classroom

Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. UNICEF estimated it at over 11 million and over 60% of this being girls. To ensure that we deliver education services to the students in remote areas as well as maintain delivery of vocational/entrepreneurship training (so that these students can be educated and earn income), we are setting up a remote learning laboratory. From this hub, we will provide remote learning. This will be done by maintaining an online hub at the main remote learning lab as well as utilizing robust offline devices to transmit audio, written and video learning content to remote areas where internet accessibility is unavailable. Our solution once scaled has the potential to drastically reduce the number of children who currently do not have access to education globally because it addresses all the major problems like electrify supply, internet connectivity, available of computers etc.

 

Nigeria has been battling with the huge number of out-of-school children which is estimated at over 11 million.  This is regarded as one of the highest in the world. The global figure is over 250 million. Like most countries around the globe, education delivery in Nigeria was  distrupted by Covid-19 pandemic, thus increasing the number of out-of-school children.  While highbrow privately-owned schools are able to use of online tools, government attempts to broadcast classes on public television and radio stations for the poor have been inadequate. They have not addressed Nigeria’s peculiar educational problems for the poor in a holistic manner.  Solutions do not mitigate the problem of erratic electricity supply and internet coverage challenges in Nigeria as well as the lack of devices like smart phones, laptops etc. Thus far, the only worthwhile learning that has been going on has been enjoyed by children from affluent homes.  The majority of children (especially those who form the out-of-school bracket and those from low income) have not been able to benefit as they do not have access to internet and public electricity. Also, the cost of computer devices is prohibitive.

We are setting up a remote learning laboratory at our school site at Lekki Peninsula Affordable School at Lekki. From the hub, we shall facilitate programs that will encourage remote learning including:

 

Deploying the use of Hitch and/or Rachel Plus platforms which have videos and materials curetted to meet Nigerian curriculums. From our central learning studio, real online studies will be held and recorded /uploaded on the platforms with updated contents from teachers. These 2 devices will allow the recorded materials to be saved and then downloaded as offline materials to be used by a team of local facilitators that we will have in remote areas with erratic or no access to internet. The use of inexpensive solar power also solves electricity challenges for  poor urban areas and the rural areas.

Direct Beneficiaries:

1. Primary Pupils aged 6-11 years enrolled in online primary curricular
2. Secondary School Student aged 11-18 enrolled in regular junior and senior online secondary school curricular
3. Post secondary school students enrolled in after-school enrichment program
4. Post secondary school students enrolled in vocational training programs

 

Indirect Beneficiaries:

1. Suppliers and Vendors
2. Employers of Vocational Trainees
3. Community Centres/Halls
4. Local government
5. Civil Society Organizations

The existing online learning structures have not addressed Nigeria’s peculiar educational problems for the poor in a holistic manner.  They do not mitigate the problem of erratic electricity supply and internet coverage challenges in Nigeria as well as the lack of devices like smart phones, laptops etc. Thus far, the only worthwhile learning that has been going on has enjoyed by children from affluent homes.  The majority of children (especially those who form the out-of-school bracket and those from low income) have not been able to benefit as they do not have access to internet and public electricity.

 

With our affordable remote learning project, we can synergize with both private and public education stakeholders to make learning accessible to the mass number of people with non-access to internet and electricity. Such institution can upload their curricula on our platform which has a wider reach and access to the rural and urban poor populations.

We are currently working with about 500 students in our two brick and mortar schools.  This project has been designed based on our interactions with students from low income homes, parents as well as market women in the community in which we currently operate. We engage them through parents teachers association which gives parents the opportunity to articulate their needs. The needs have been worked into the design of our project helps up to understand their needs.

We will - set up a remote learning laboratory at the school site. We are incorporating  use of affordable and tested solar power systems in remote places to mitigate against unavailability of electricity.   We will have facilitators in every community who will be  downloading, updating lessons that will be projected to students learning hubs that will be within poor urban communities and villages. The facilitators will be member of the communities who will also have regular iterations with parents.  We will also have continuous periodic training of teachers and facilitators so that we can continue to improve on our model.

We already operate 2 schools from one campus where we will locate the learning laboratory.  We have also used the Hitch and Rachel devices extensively.  We were the first school in Nigeria to use Hitch. The Hitch platform has curated videos to enhance teaching that have been aligned to meet the Nigerian curriculum. The Rachel Plus has various preloaded K1-12 curriculum that teachers in Lekki Peninsula schools have been using since 2016 and have found very useful. It also allows teachers to create and store their own content.   The recorded lectures from the online classes will be uploaded and shared in the rural areas through these platforms. Even in areas without internet connection, the facilitators will be  supported to go once a week to the nearest city where internet is available, update and store download materials to be used in an offline format in the remote villages.

We already operate 2 schools from one campus where we will locate the learning laboratory.  We have also used the Hitch and Rachel devices extensively.  We were the first school in Nigeria to use Hitch and possible the first also to use the Rachel Plus device.  The Hitch platform has curated videos to enhance teaching that have been aligned to meet the Nigerian curriculum. The Rachel Plus has various preloaded K1-12 curriculum that teachers in Lekki Peninsula schools have been using since 2016 and have found very useful. It also allows teachers to create and store their own content.  These 2 devices will allow the recorded materials to be saved and then downloaded as offline materials to be used by a team of local facilitators that we will have in remote areas with erratic or no access to internet. The recorded lectures from the online classes will be uploaded and shared in the rural areas through these platforms.  We still use fit fibre transmission at the remote learning hub to enable good links so as to allow steady connection.  Even in areas without internet connection, the facilitators will be  supported to go once a week to the nearest city where internet is available, update and store download materials to be used in an offline format in the remote villages.

 

Program Year 1

Program Year 5

Total Beneficiary Numbers

Direct Beneficiaries

Description of Beneficiary 

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

Primary Pupils aged 6-11 years enrolled in online primary curricular

200

500

700

350

1400

1750

550

1900

2450

Secondary School Student aged 11-17 enrolled in regular junior and senior online secondary school curricular

400

800

1200

600

1200

1800

1000

2000

3000

Post secondary school students enrolled in after-school enrichment program

300

500

800

500

800

1300

800

1300

2100

Post secondary school students enrolled in vocational training programs

100

200

300

150

300

450

250

500

750

Indirect Beneficiaries

Description of Beneficiary

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

Suppliers and Vendors

25

30

55

40

50

90

65

80

145

Employers of Vocational Trainees

200

250

450

400

500

900

600

750

1350

 

1. Number of students enrolled in remote schools

2. Number of centres opened

3. Number of post secondary students enrolled in vocational training

Full Time: Currently, the school has staff strength of over 46 made up of teaching and non-teaching staff. Over 60% of these are women.

Part Time: This includes consultants and partners who are about 10

Working with our sister organization, Equality through Education Foundation, in 2016, we conducted a wide environmental analysis of how to expand our affordable education programs to a wider group of students who were still having difficulties in accessing the school sites as a result of transportation cost. Thus, we were able to conclude that if we solve problems of internet and electricity accessibility for these set of students, it is possible to hold viable remote learnings with them. Thus, we reached out to Hitch and Rachel Plus and got their professional and technical input to configuring Nigerian curriculum into the platforms.

 

Lekki Peninsula Affordable Schools commissioned the use of the two platforms in 2016 at the school site with the Hitch platform having videos to enhance teaching that have been curated to meet the Nigerian curriculum while the Rachel Plus has various preloaded K1-12 Nigerian curriculum lessons. The school has found them very useful as it allows teachers to create and store their own content which can be downloaded offline to by and to the students at any location. We also have been using more solar energy options to solve the challenges of electricity supplies in and outside the school site.

 

The solution depends fully on use of renewable energy (solar power) with zero tolerance for fossil fuel based power system. Also, there is less interaction with magnetic and electric waves from internet usage by the students as the download are mostly offline.

Our focus is primarily affordable education in an integrated manner to develop full and holistic learning in the children, especially girls. We include gender advocacy programs as part of our curriculum.  Close to two thousand, four hundred students have benefited from our efforts. We have also been working with youths, especially women through our advocacy program which is a social and educational project that empowers and inspires youths and women from extremely marginalized communities with no access to education or vocation and viable jobs. We provide them with a blend of affordable academic learning, skill acquisition, enterprise and leadership training. Over 70% of our students have been female of which majority of them have either graduated from tertiary institutions or acquired relevant vocational skills to be engaged viably in the society.

It is our belief that we can solve the barrier of funding with the access to the Solve funds. This will enable us set up the training hubs, acquire the training technology platforms and organize and provide seed money for the first cohort of the solution.

Furthermore, the mentorship and strategic advice from Solve and MIT Networks will enable us gain traction in managing every market based barriers.

We will be collecting data as the solution progresses to be published and made available to other organizations, stakeholders and regulators involved in skill acquisition programs in Nigeria so as to improve the operations of the vocational training field.

Lastly, attendance and participation in Solve programs will grant us access to enrich our networks amongst peers, funders and other experts which will greatly help in scaling the solution along the planned timelines.

Our  goal is to foster partnership with any organization that will help in setting up and scaling this innovative solution towards ensuring that it directly and indirectly impact on millions of vulnerable Nigerian  children who are presently out of school or do not have access to qualitative learning experiences. This partnership in our opinion should be diverse support in financing.

Basically, our partnership agenda is focused on strengthening innovation by promoting social engagements and developing entrepreneurship in Nigeria especially within the education sector which is our immediate ecosystem

MIT Faculty

Investors

Other Solve Members

Lekki Peninsula College has been involved in provision of affordable education to children in Nigeria especially to children in the remote areas.. Our current solution is targeted at provision of qualitative learning to children in the rural and peri-urban places where internet and electricity is not available. This will enable them to be enrolled in school and significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country. Thus, we are committed to use the ASA Prize to provide a low cost training solution for these set of vulnerable people who are mainly from the low income bracket of the society

Lekki Peninsula College has been involved in provision of affordable
education to children in Nigeria especially to children in the remote
areas..

Our current solution is targeted at provision of qualitative learning
to children in the rural and peri-urban places where internet and
electricity is not available. This will enable them to be enrolled in
school and significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children in
the country. Thus, we are committed to use the GM Prize to provide a low
cost training solution for these set of vulnerable people who are mainly
from the low income bracket of the society

Lekki Peninsula College has been involved in provision of affordable
education to children in Nigeria especially to children in the remote
areas..

Our current solution is targeted at provision of qualitative learning
to children in the rural and peri-urban places where internet and
electricity is not available. This will enable them to be enrolled in
school and significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children in
the country. Thus, we are committed to use the Prize to provide a low
cost training solution for these set of vulnerable people who are mainly
from the low income bracket of the society