Education: Lagos govt. EKOEXCEL methodology acknowledged by Nobel Prize winner as solution to learning challenges
Ayodele Olalere
An educational methodology adopted by the Lagos State sponsored programme, EKOEXCEL, has been acknowledged as a reliable solution to solving deficiencies in the educational system.
This is according to a major new study published by 2019 Nobel Prize-winning economist, Professor Michael Kremer’s. The study looked at the methodology underpinning some of Nigeria’s flagship education reforms, The groundbreaking study into an approach to teaching, learning and school management, first started in Kenya before arriving in Nigeria.
The methodology powered by NewGlobe, an education technical partner supporting visionary governments in the transformation of public education, is the same one used in Governor Sanwo-Olu’s education transformation program EKO Excellence in Education and Learning (EKOEXCEL)
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This same integrated approach to teaching and learning acclaimed by Professor Kremer was adopted by the Lagos State government to support public primary school teachers and the Lagos State Basic Education Board with the introduction of EKOEXCEL in all primary schools in the state.
The EKOEXCEL was launched in 2019 and made free of fees to pupils by the Lagos State government, with over 18,000 headteachers and teachers retrained using the EKOEXCEL methodology. Over 14,000 primary school teachers from 1,011 public primary schools have also been captured under the scheme.
“The effects in this study are among the largest in the international education literature, particularly for a program that was already operating at scale. “This study shows that attending schools delivering highly standardized education has the potential to produce dramatic learning gains at scale, suggesting that policymakers may wish to explore incorporation of standardisation, including standardized lesson plans and teacher feedback and monitoring, in their own systems,” said the 2019 Nobel Prize Winner, Professor Michael Kremer.
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Attesting to the success of the EKOEXCEL program, Governor Sanwo-Olu indicated that Nigeria doesn’t need to adopt any other e-learning solutions from outside the country as the one within (EKOEXCEL) works well.
He further revealed that Lagos borrowed the methodology of EKOEXCEL from EdoBEST and upscaled its impact three times more.
“I usually acknowledge Governor Obaseki because I copied something that he introduced during his first tenure and which is working three times in Lagos, education. He started EdoBEST, and he brought in Bridge (New Globe), an e-learning solution provider with tablets for basic education.
“So, you can see that indeed, we have started doing peer review. You don’t need to go to another country to copy what is working well in our country already. He brought the initiative, and we said we also need to start with basic education. We have copied that from Edo; it’s working well in Lagos, and we’ll scale it up,”Gov. Sanwo-Olu said.
