By Dipo Olowookere
A school located in Ohanku Aba, Abia State, Best Intellectuals Model School, is in the race to get a share of the $250,000 for the World’s Best School Prizes put together by T4 Education in partnership with Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture and American Express.
The Nigerian school was named in the top 10 shortlists in the Overcoming Adversity category and will hope to make it to the top 3 alongside other institutions in the other categories like Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, and Supporting Healthy Lives later in the year.
After a public advisory vote, the winner of each Prize will be chosen based on rigorous criteria by a judging academy comprising distinguished leaders all across the globe including academics, educators, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, government, civil society, and the private sector.
In October 2022, the winners will be announced at World Education Week and a prize of $250,000 will be equally shared among the winners of the five Prizes, with each receiving an award of $50,000.
In addition, all 50 shortlisted schools across the five Prizes will share their best practices through toolkits that showcase their “secret sauce” to innovative approaches and step-by-step instructions on how others can replicate their methods to help improve education everywhere.
Best Intellectuals Model School entered the competition by making a music video to boost the morale of students during a period of turmoil that rocked Nigerian society and went viral in the process.
In 2021, the school witnessed a wave of drop-outs due to the harsh effect of the COVID pandemic as some parents struggled with financial strains.
With the country also experiencing a high unemployment rate and a marked increase in crime, the conditions Best Intellectuals Model School faced forced it to reevaluate how it would continue to open its doors and keep up the morale of demoralised students and the wider community. It decided to use the healing power of music.
The people in the local community were known to love music and were even more receptive when children were involved. The school hoped that a music video, using its younger students, would reach the hearts and minds of the people within the community and address some of society’s ills. But it faced numerous challenges along the way.
The school staff provided children with face masks and made sure they observed social distancing. They didn’t have a school bus to get to the nearest studio, so they had to traverse the dirt roads, eventually getting to the studio with soiled clothes. They would have to clean off before recording and shooting the footage for the video. They didn’t have instruments, so they used music online. In the end, the hard work paid off and the video was considered a viral hit amongst the community.
The founder of T4 Education, Vikas Pota, while speaking on the contest, stated that, “With over 1.5 billion learners impacted by the school and university closures, COVID has greatly exacerbated a global education crisis in which, even before the pandemic, the UN warned progress was already too slow to achieve universal quality education by 2030.
“We have launched the World’s Best School Prizes as a grassroots solution to help build the systemic change needed. By telling the stories of inspirational schools that are transforming the lives of their students and making a real difference in their communities, schools can share their best practices and have their voices heard at the top table to help transform education.
“I want to congratulate Best Intellectuals Model School for making the Top 10 shortlists for the inaugural World’s Best School Prizes. Educators all over the world will now be able to learn from the example of this outstanding Nigerian school.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka