Teach For Nigeria (TFN), a non-profit organisation focused on enlisting Nigeria’s most promising future leaders in the effort to expand educational and life opportunities for all children in the country has launched applications for its seventh cohort fellowship.
Folawe Omikunle, chief executive officer of TFN speaking at the recruitment launch recently, said, “We are committed to building a nationwide movement of leaders to provide an excellent, equitable education to all of Nigeria’s children.
Through our two-year fellowship, we are driving long-term systemic change. Our fellows are placed in underserved schools to work relentlessly to transform the lives of their students.
We also train, equip and support them through a combination of pre-service training and ongoing support. We are about to usher in a new set of leaders in the educational sector and we are excited to begin the process of inspiring leaders.”
Omikunle recounted how the initiative started in 2017 with just 45 independent partners and has now groomed and grown over 1,140 teacher-leaders in the country.
Furthermore, she said in a country beclouded with so many challenges such unemployment which is at 33 percent and still counting, insecurity, which according to her, Nigeria is the sixth most terrorist country in the world, and the challenge of 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria; she reiterated that no person is deficit of talents to join in working to increase and accelerate the impact of social enterprises that are cultivating the leadership necessary to ensure that one day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education which is one of the challenges before the country.
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The 2023 event which was held virtual had an open call for its fellows with a theme; “Find Your Purpose: Discover Your Leadership”, targeting young leaders committed to tackling the country’s foundational learning challenge in underserved primary schools.
Daniel Ochekwu, a 2019 TFN alumnus and a guest speaker at the event said; “My two years as a fellow at TFN made me grow exponentially. It helped me learn more about life, and improved my ability to empathise, identify and solve problems.
Teach For Nigeria supports you to run with your innovations beyond the fellowship. The resources (people and material) TFN gave me were enormous.’’
For Godwin Henry, one of the panelists, “It was beyond education and teaching, the need to be part of solutions, the desire to create an environment where everyone is impacted” was what gave him the impetus to join TFN.
According to Michael Iyoko, one of the alumni, “TFN offers professional opportunities to its fellows leading to networking. It gives one clarity in life, helping you to know what you don’t want. Fellows get mentors to guide them all the way. It is a system built to help fellows succeed.”
The Teach For Nigeria fellowship programme continues to serve as a private-sector-led solution to bridge the learning gap and address the education inequity in Nigeria.
The fellowship is open to outstanding young professionals including non-teachers and existing teachers interested in being part of the movement to end educational inequity in Nigeria. In the last 6 years, TFN has successfully placed and supported 1140 fellows to lead significant academic and non-academic outcomes in 600+ underserved schools, impacting over 160,000 students in Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna and Oyo States.
The TFN fellowship programme is a 2-year full-time paid commitment that is designed to build a movement of leaders who will work towards eliminating educational inequity by teaching in under-served schools in low-income communities across Nigeria.
The selected fellows will be posted to teach students in under-resourced schools across Lagos and Ogun States.
Interested applicants can visit https://teachfornigeria.org/apply/ to apply.
