DEEPEN Supports Low Cost Private Schools’ Innovations
The United Kingdom-funded Developing Effective Private Education in Nigeria (DEEPEN) programme, through its Challenge Fund, is providing opportunity for education service providers to pilot a range of innovative products and services in low cost private schools so as to improve teaching and learning in schools.
With the fund, it will identify what works to improve the quality of education in low cost private schools and disseminate examples of best practices and support the growth of a competitive non-state education market.
Speaking at its close out programme and innovation fair in Lagos recently, the Senior Education Advisor Team Leader, DEEPEN Programme, Dr. Gboyega Ilusanya listed its components to include supporting innovation and facilitating change.
“With facilitating change component, we are using our market systems approach to improve learning outcomes in schools in Lagos, through that, we are looking at rules and standards, supporting government to improve their grading system to enable schools to do better.
“The other side is looking at access to finance, which to a number of schools can improve but they are stuck in between and they couldn’t access the finance. We also improve the level of information available to stakeholders and making a choice for low cost private education to help schools to improve on their services and ultimately improve learning outcomes of it.
“The innovation component is looking at the areas in which innovation around teaching and learning, literacy, numeracy and how children can solve mathematical problems and much more, could be piloted, tried and tested in low income private schools to support improvement.
“Other innovations are centred around technology and teachers’ support arms where challenges facing them and being able to prepare their lessons are sorted out. Such les- son plan which was developed by a previous programme on hard copy, is converted to an app which can be downloaded on a tablet, tried and tested to support teachers and improved beyond literacy and numeracy to social studies and basic sciences. It is like bringing in technology into schools that are serving low income households.”
The Team Leader Challenge Fund, DEEPEN, Dr. Nneka Enwonwu, who emphasised on the impact of the programme on education providers said, “they are quite excited that people are looking at them and thinking about ways they can improve and help them because they have a lot of challenges in terms of quality of teachers, structures and challenges in getting support to have access to finance from financial institutions. It is something that they never really have gotten so they can’t really improve. They are quite excited that people are coming up with solutions that will help them.”
The Director-General, Lagos State Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), Mrs. Ronke Soyombo reiterated the state government’s commitment to supporting schools to improve the quality of education.
She described the innovation as laudable, saying that it is a way of giving back to the children and improving teaching and learning in schools.
“Every little help counts and that is what we are doing today. We need to put our hands on deck to raise standard in our schools. What Challenge Fund is showing is how teachers can be more creative in our schools,” she said, while expressing satisfaction about the innovation of the education providers for low income private schools.