SEED Care & Support Foundation launches fellowship for 10,000 Teachers-In-Training

SEED Care & Support Foundation (SEED), has partnered 1 Million Teachers, Queens University, W-Holistic Business Solutions and Acceler8 Hub to launch the SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship (STiTF) for 10,000 Teachers-In-Training across Nigeria.

A non-governmental and non-profit organisation, SEED provides holistic and inclusive solutions helping schools that serve children from low-income families build lasting pathways to education quality.

The Fellowship was initiated as part of SEED Care & Support Foundation’s mission to positively impact today’s school-aged children through a holistic and inclusive model that impacts major stakeholders in the education ecosystem, including school owners, administrators, teachers, parents, communities, government and most importantly, the school children.

The SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship is a transformational and breakthrough model in revolutionizing the teaching profession; while creating a movement of teachers-in-training leaders with the appropriate skills and motivation to eliminate education poverty and inequity.

SEED Care & Support Foundation, Office of the Special Adviser on Education (OSAE), Lagos State and Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) collaborated to launch the SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship on Monday, 6 February 2023 at the Senator Oluremi Tinubu Hall, Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), Oto/Ijanikin, Lagos Nigeria. The launch event was officially opened by Bidemi Bilkis Lafiaji-Okuneye, the university’s pioneer vice-chancellor.

In her opening address, the vice-chancellor said “Teaching is a noble profession. You will be responsible for shaping the future generation.” She further urged all the students to take advantage of the unique SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship opportunity.

Olanrewaju Oniyitan, executive director, SEED Care & Support Foundation speaking during the launch explained that the challenges with education in Nigeria is enormous.

“We believe that every Nigerian child will have the opportunity to attain a quality education, no matter their background. However, without qualified and motivated teachers, children stand very little chance of realising their potentials.”

Oniyitan added that “Unfortunately, there are massive shortages of qualified and competent teachers across the world, and Nigeria is also adversely affected with acute shortages and brain drain. The SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship is geared towards building the pipeline of qualified and motivated teachers starting right at the beginning – while they are in school, training to be teachers.”

SEED plans to achieve this by implementing the fellowship in partnership with teacher training institutions across Nigeria. The SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship program will supplement the regular instruction with rigorous training and support, so that the Teachers-In-Training can be prepared as they go into professional practice.

SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellow will have access to free life-long online access to world class teacher and leadership training with completion certificates; opportunity to put learning into practice while in school to boost their experience; opportunity to design and implement a social change or community impact project; access to competitions and awards, coaching, mentoring, continuing development, employment and entrepreneurship training, amongst others to help them grow professionally; and most importantly the opportunity to be part of a movement that will impact lives, communities and Nigeria.

Nigeria is ranked the country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world with approximately 20 million children out-of-school (UNESCO, 2022). According to UNICEF (2022), no fewer than 70 per cent of children in Nigerian schools are suffering from learning poverty (a situation where 10-year-olds cannot read or understand a simple text).

Many children do not go to secondary school, and of those that go to secondary school many can not even read and write when they finish and only about 10% make it to the tertiary level. There is also a global shortage of trained (quality) teachers and this shortage is expected to reach 69 million by 2030 (UNESCO, 2016). With the COVID-19 pandemic, this number has drastically increased. These and much more have impacted the Nigerian educational scene negatively.

Hakeem Subair, CEO, 1 Million Teachers neatly summarises the situation as follows. “A few years ago, we started Thinking in Systems and exploring a multi-stakeholder approach to our work. This approach aligns with SDG 17 – Partnership for Development – that the SDGs can only be met if we all work together. This approach has led to many collaborations through our partnership with Queen’s University, Girl Rising, HP, SEED Care and Support Foundation, as well as the 1MT/Queen’s/UNESCO partnership.”

Subair continued “We are excited to be part of a new partnership for transforming teacher education in Lagos State, and in Nigeria at large. In collaboration with SEED Care & Support Foundation, Office of the Special Adviser on Education (OSAE), Lagos State and Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), the “SEED Teachers-In-Training Fellowship (STiTF)” will accelerate the training and rapid deployment of desperately needed capable teachers who will hit the ground running as they embark on their teaching career.”