Mocked and rejected: Story of Nigerian teacher shortlisted for $1m global prize

In this report, Weekend Trust spotlights Kayode Adewale, Ogun State-born mathematics teacher shortlisted among 50 finalists for the 2024 $1million global teacher prize and how his approach to teaching, driven by passion and resilience, has taken him from an under-served community to the global stage. When his class teacher, Segun Oguntimehin, threw the usual question […]

In this report, Weekend Trust spotlights Kayode Adewale, Ogun State-born mathematics teacher shortlisted among 50 finalists for the 2024 $1million global teacher prize and how his approach to teaching, driven by passion and resilience, has taken him from an under-served community to the global stage.

When his class teacher, Segun Oguntimehin, threw the usual question of what you want to become in the future at him, in SS1, at Abobi Comprehensive High School Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, he responded: “I want to become a teacher like you.”

Oguntimehin, now the principal of the school, was unsettled by the response.

Little Kayode Adewale’s reply defiled “I want to become a doctor”, “I want to become a lawyer” responses that teachers like Oguntimehin would get from his students. Perhaps, the teacher would not want the innocent boy to get caught up in the profession which reward “is in heaven.”

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The young boy, determined about his future, stood his ground. “I want to become a teacher like you. You are an inspiration to us. I want to become like you,” he told the teacher.

Oguntimehin who was Adewale’s teacher from SS1 to SS3 then wished him the best in his chosen career.

“I left the school on that day, and went round telling people I wanted to become a teacher,” he told Weekend Trust.

Adewale, inspired by the teacher and a television show teaching mathematics, is living true to his dream and has become one of the most celebrated teachers in the world. Early this month, he was shortlisted among the 50 finalists for the 2024 $1million global teacher prize.

 

The award

The Global Teacher Prize is an annual award presented by the Varkey Foundation to an exceptional teacher who has made significant impact on their students and community. Established in 2014, the prize aims to highlight the importance of educators and recognize the outstanding contributions they make in society. The award comes with a cash prize of $1 million, making it one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of education.

The Global Teacher Prize highlights the crucial role of educators, emphasizing that their contributions deserve recognition and celebration worldwide. It aims to honour the profound impact of outstanding teachers on both their students and their surrounding communities.

By underscoring the significance of teachers in nurturing future generations, the Global Teacher Prize seeks to inspire educators globally to persist in their essential work of shaping young minds and enriching society.

According to the organisers, the prize aims to raise the status of the teaching profession, celebrating educators who inspire and contribute significantly to their communities. 

It seeks to highlight the importance of teachers and the complex nature of their work, emphasising their role in shaping the future.

The first award was presented in 2015, and 2017 marked the first time that any Nigerian teacher would feature on the finalists’ list.

In 2017, two Nigerian teachers were shortlisted for the prestigious Global Teacher Prize. 

In 2021 also, two Nigerian teachers made the top 50 shortlist for the Varkey Foundation $1 million Global Teacher Prize 2021.

In 2023, two Nigerian teachers were listed by the organisation.

For the 2024 edition, only Adewale made it to the top 50 from Nigeria.

 

Enter Kayode Adewale

40-year-old Kayode Adewale is a Mathematics and Information & Science Technology teacher at Imaka/Imagbon Comprehensive High School, Imagbon Ijebu, in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State.  

Born in Ago Iwoye in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State, he had his primary education at the Methodist Primary School Imososi, Ago-Iwoye, and secondary school education was at Abobi Comprehensive High School, also in the same town.

He went to Tai Solarin College of Education, Ijagun, now Tai Solarin University of Education for his National Certificate of Education in Mathematics and Economics and finished in 2004.

He had his degree in Mathematics from Tai Solarin University of Education in 2011, as well as his master’s degree in Measurement and Evaluation from the same institution in 2015. He is currently a PhD student at the same university.

Adewale is a science educator who has formed a Space Exploration Club for his secondary school. He also inspired science teachers in all the 517 secondary schools in the state to establish the Space Exploration Club, a programme powered in partnership with the Limitless Space Institute based in Houston, Texas.

 

The unique teaching style

Adewale told Weekend Trust that he adopts ‘culturally relevant pedagogy’ style in teaching his students mathematics.

He said the style is in line with the philosophy of renowned educationist, Babatunde Fafunwa, on the relevance of using mother tongue as a means of communication in teaching.

“I adopted what is called culturally relevant pedagogy in teaching mathematics. By this, I use the primary language of the students or those things that are available in their environment as instructional aids when teaching. As an Ijebu man who is teaching in Ijebu land, I felt like ‘why not, if not?’

“My school is located in an under-served community. So, while teaching such students, you have to be very careful. You have to cite examples of what they can see in their immediate environment. Like Lajiga or Gorodomu. Lajiga in Ijebu is something that looks like a cylinder such as a pail or bucket that we use to fetch water to bath or wash our clothes. Such examples will stick to their brain.  

“So, the very first day I used the local dialect to teach in the class, I found out that some students who had been passive and would ordinarily not show interest became interested in what we were doing.

“This also led me to start creating content in Ijebu dialect and it became the talk of the town.

“I think when passion meets hard work, it becomes a success story,” he said.

Adewale said he was mocked at the initial stage about his style of teaching in Ijebu dialect.

“I was actually mocked because a lot of people said, ‘how do you think this one will go far?’. The mockery was from those who did not understand the language. Some of my colleagues also said ‘this thing can not fly’ because most of the children don’t speak Ijebu dialect. But I told them that’s the more reason for the content because the dialect is already going into extinction,” he said.

 

Plans for the $1m prize

On how he intends to spend the prize if he wins, Adewale said “The first 20 per cent will go for a capacity-building programme for the top 10 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize, excluding myself. The second 20 per cent will go for the creation of awareness about the prestigious global prize across Africa. The next 10 per cent is for students in underserved communities in Nigeria.

“Another 10 per cent will be used to build an innovation hub in my school at Imagbon Ijebu with 21st Century tech gadgets that will make the students believe that technology can transform the classroom and people’s lives.

“Then the last 40 per cent will be for the development of technology-assisted instructional management solutions which is my project and programme and the capacity training that I called ‘Transformation 1,090’, meaning that I will be reaching out to 10 teachers in each of the 109 senatorial districts that we have in the country.”