Uganda wins as Nigeria makes top 10 list of schools overcoming adversity

Nigeria’s Best Intellectuals Model School has made the top 10 list of the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity while Uganda’s Project Shelter Wakadogo emerged winner of the inaugural award.

Project Shelter Wakadogo emerged as the winner for its role in educating children in the wake of the war in Uganda.

The World’s Best School Prizes, founded this year by T4 Education in collaboration with Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture, and American Express, are the world’s most prestigious education prizes that see winning schools share an award of $250,000.

According to the organisers, the purpose is to share the best practices of schools that are transforming the lives of their students and making a real difference in their communities.

Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, commended Project Shelter Wakadogo for winning the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity.

Pota said it is time for world leaders to sit up and listen to institutions like this outstanding Ugandan school.

Read also: NGO, UN partner to drive Women Empowerment Principles at workplace

“Far too many children will continue to be left behind in the wake of Covid unless governments take urgent action to tackle the education crisis. As a first step, they must turn to the knowledge and experience contained within our schools because those at the front of education know better than anyone else the change we need to see.

“We founded the World’s Best School Prizes to surface the expertise of trailblazing schools from every corner of the globe so that leaders can learn from their incredible stories,” Pota said.

Project Shelter Wakadogo will use the prize funds to offer more scholarships to marginalised and underprivileged children in the community.

It will also use the funds to set up an online learning platform to facilitate hybrid and catch-up learning, in case of schools should ever close again, and share its approach and technology where possible with schools in the region. It will also use the funds to continue to provide mid-morning porridge and midday meals to its students as most in the wider community live on one meal a day.

Other winners that made up the top five include Dunoon Grammar School in the UK which won the World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration; Escuela Emilia Lascar in Chile won the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation; Bonuan Buquig National High School in the Philippines won the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action, and Curie Metropolitan High School in the US won the World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives.