Gideon Ogungeyimi, an alumni of Teach for Nigeria, TFN, a non-government organisation, has emerged winner of the “Most Outstanding Lockdown Teacher Competition”, organised by Educational Aid Global Initiative (Edu-Aid).
A fellow of TFN, Precious Adegunle, also emerged first runner-up in the competition which was organised to reward selflessness, creativity and innovation among teachers who ensured learning continued during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Teachers who applied for the contest were required to submit a one-minute video detailing their works, which were later assessed to determine the winners.
According to the award organisers, Gideon was able develop a “Learn at Home” model to engage his students during the lockdown.
“Under the Learn at Home model, Gideon created and printed worksheets in English and Mathematics which were delivered to the doorstep of his pupils and collected at a later date for assessments. He also launched ‘Project Feed100’ with two other Fellows, which provided low-income families with financial palliatives to cater for their children’s education, feeding and health needs.”
Precious, on her part, was said to raise funds to purchase tablets for her students and began a project to digitise the Nigerian curriculum in indigenous languages, particularly Yoruba.
“She preinstalled these educational contents and also included games, movies, books and worksheets to encourage continued learning for her pupils. Precious went further to distribute these tablets to her pupils for free,” the organisers added.
Commenting, CEO, Teach For Nigeria, Folawe Omikunle, said, “We are tremendously proud to see not only the winner of this contest emerge from TFN, but also the first runner-up. This is evident of the leadership quality that exists in our teacher leaders.
“The pandemic widened the gap of inequity, and as leaders who understand the challenges in underserved schools, our teacher leaders did not only identify the challenges, but they also displayed a great sense of responsibility and agency in responding urgently to ensure that learning didn’t stop despite the school closure. We are inspired to see the possibilities of the future of education beyond the classrooms within low-income communities.”
Gideon and Precious were presented cash prizes of N500,000 and N300,000, respectively which they have both committed to creating more opportunities for low-income learners and to rehabilitating library facilities across low-income schools and communities.
