A man, Kayode Adewale who teaches mathematics using the Ijebu dialect has won the $1 million global teacher prize
Adewale shared his story with Punch Newspapers
The Global Teacher Prize is an annual US$1 million award by the Varkey Foundation to a teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.
Nominations of teachers who meet specific criteria are open to the worldwide public, and teachers can also nominate themselves.]
The judging is done by the Global Teacher Prize Academy, which consists of professionals from different backgrounds.
Adewale was among the 50 finalists for the 2024 edition of the competition and eventually won the prize.
Apart from running a YouTube channel where he teaches mathematics in Ijebu, Adewale teaches mathematics at Imaka/Imagbon Comprehensive High School, Imagbon Ijebu Ogun State.
He is also Mathematics and Information and Science Technology teacher and science educator who has established a Space Exploration Club for his secondary school.
He told Punch Newspapers that he has also inspired science teachers in the over 517 secondary schools in the state to establish the Space Exploration Club, a programme that Ihe powered in partnership with Limitless Space Institute
Background
Born in Ago Iwoye in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State on June 8, 1984. Adewale had his primary education at Methodist Primary School, Imososi, Ago-Iwoye, and his secondary education at Abobi Secondary School, also in the same town.
He attended 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 began his teaching career at Iwopin Pulp and Paper Primary School in 2006 in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of the state.
However, in 2008 he moved up to secondary school just in a bid to enhance his career. He was posted to Ayede Comprehensive High School in the same council area, and in 2012, he was transferred to Oodua Comprehensive High School at Imoru Ijebu. From there, he joined his present school in Imagbon still in Ogun State.
Adewale also holds a degree in Mathematics from Tai Solarin University of Education in 2011 and a master’s degree in Measurement and Evaluation from the same institution in 2015. In 2018, he gained admission to the University of Ibadan for his PhD programme but had to abandon it due to paucity of funds.
He said however, ‘ In 2019, I met the CEO of Edutams who was looking for a research assistant. He got interested in me and agreed to help with my PhD programme. So, I went back to TASUED, and I am almost completing my PhD programme now. I am focusing on developing and validating technology-assisted instructional management solution.
How I won
On how he came about winning the prize he said, ‘I tried to develop myself in my calling as a teacher. So, I used to set aside some funds with which I attended training locally and internationally. I started getting the results of my teaching efforts in 2020 when I emerged as the best senior secondary school teacher in the state and was rewarded with N2.5m by Governor Dapo Abiodun.’
Being a Christian, he said he paid his tithe from the money and also renovated the multipurpose laboratory in his school, turning it into a STEM laboratory where he trains teachers and exposes his students to the technological tools that they can use.
Asewale who was Ogun State Maltina Best Teacher of the Year; in 2022 got selected for the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Programme sponsored by the US Government. ‘It was a six-week training programme in the US, which I gladly participated in. While in the US, I was declared as the third-best teacher in Nigeria. I also got a refrigerator for that effort.:
Mathematics in Ijebu Dialect
On his online maths class in Ijebu dialect, he.said, ‘Yes, the approach I use in teaching Mathematics in class is called culturally relevant pedagogy. This means using the primary language of the students or those things that the students are very familiar with to use them as instructional aids when teaching. As an Ijebu man who is teaching in Ijebu land, I felt like ‘why not, if not?’
“So, the very first day I used the dialect to teach in the class, I found out that some students who had been passive and would ordinarily not shown interest became interested in what we were doing. I told the students, ‘Le mo lajiga nu yin’. 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.’
How the money will be spent
He said he already already wrote down a proposal on how to spend the money. ‘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.’
His advice
Adewale advised government at all levels to equip teachers and motivate them to do more. ‘Remuneration is very key here. For instance, the N2.5m award given to me by Governor Dapo Abiodun for emerging as the best senior secondary school teacher in 2020 motivated me to do more
‘The governor rewarded some teachers with a two-bedroom bungalow for their exceptional efforts in teaching. The government should also do more in capacity building for teachers to make them more productive by being in tune with modern trends in teaching.’ he said.
