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Ogun State Mathematics school teacher, Kayode Adewale, who was among the top 50 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize of $1m, narrates to BANKOLE TAIWO, his journey to achieving the outstanding feat, among other issues
Who is Kayode Adewale?
Kayode Adewale is a Mathematics and Information and Science Technology teacher at Imaka/Imagbon Comprehensive High School, Imagbon Ijebu in Odogbolu Local Government of Ogun State. I am also a science educator who has formed a Space Exploration Club for my secondary school. I have also inspired science teachers in all our 517 secondary schools in the state to establish the Space Exploration Club, a programme that I powered in partnership with Limitless Space Institute based in Houston, Texas.
How was growing up?
I was born in Ago Iwoye in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State on June 8, 1984. I had my primary education at Methodist Primary School, Imososi, Ago-Iwoye, and my secondary education was at Abobi Secondary School, also in the same town. I later went to Tai Solarin College of Education, Ijagun, now Tai Solarin University of Education for my National Certificate of Education in Mathematics and Economics and finished in 2004.
I started my teaching career at Iwopin Pulp and Paper Primary School in 2006 in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of the state. However, in 2008, I moved up to secondary school just in a bid to enhance my career. I was posted to Ayede Comprehensive High School in the same council area, and in 2012, I was transferred to Oodua Comprehensive High School at Imoru Ijebu. From there, I joined my present school in Imagbon.
Again, I earned my degree in Mathematics from Tai Solarin University of Education in 2011. I have also had my master’s degree in Measurement and Evaluation from the same institution in 2015. In 2018, I gained admission to the University of Ibadan for my PhD programme but had to abandon it due to my lack of financial prowess.
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 solutions.
How did you come this far to the point of winning the Global Teacher Prize of $1m?
I have always 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.
As a Christian, I paid my tithe which is 10 per cent of this money and I also renovated the multipurpose laboratory in my school, turning it into a STEM laboratory where I train teachers and also use it to expose my students to the technological tools that they can use. I had, earlier in 2019, won my school 30 laptops from Co-Creation Hub, Lagos, owned by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani.
That informed why I offered to renovate the multipurpose laboratory so that we could have a safe place for these computers while the students and teachers could also come around to learn. In 2022, I emerged as Ogun State Maltina Best Teacher of the Year; I got to the final as among the top 10 best teachers in Nigeria.
In 2023, I 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.
Have you always fallen in love with Mathematics?
While growing up, I fell in love with a television programme that I used to watch in one of my uncle’s houses then; I fell in love with how the man was handling Mathematics, and ever since, it has been my first love. Even when I wanted to gain admission for my NCE programme, I was given a lot of options but once I saw Economics and Mathematics, I said that is it. By God’s grace, in 2020, I also became a teacher teaching Mathematics on the Ogun State Television during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was among 20 teachers selected to teach in what the Ogun State Government called the Ogun Digi Class. It was a dream come true because I have always wanted to appear on TV teaching Mathematics just like the man I used to watch then.
Additionally, I also remember that while we were in SS1, my teacher then, who incidentally is now the principal of the secondary school where I teach now, was asking what we would like to become in the future.
The students said they would like to become doctors, lawyers, bankers, and accountants, among others, but I said I would like to become a teacher. He was surprised and asked me why, and I said I would like to become a teacher to serve as an inspiration to the younger generation just as he was doing then. I am happy that my teacher then and now my Principal, Mr Segun Oguntimehin, is alive to see everything coming true to the glory of God.
You run an online class teaching Mathematics in Ijebu dialects. Are you trying to canvass for teaching in your mother tongue?
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.
This experience gave me an inkling that using our local dialect or language could prove helpful in underserved communities. Since then, I adopted this pedagogical style and it has been paying off. This is what I said I should further do by having a presence online such as Facebook, with a YouTube channel which I started in 2020. Like the late Prof. Babs Fafunwa, I am also an advocate of using our indigenous language to impact knowledge.
How do you feel to be among the 50 top finalists for the Global Teacher Prize?
That is a dream come true to the glory of God. As a teacher who started winning awards from the local level as the best teacher in Ogun State, third best in Nigeria, and top 10 educators in the globe, who attended the Limitless Space Global Educators Programme in Houston Texas in 2024, and crowned it up with the Global Teacher Prize, it is just something awesome.
I, however, want to say that it did not come by accident; it is something I have been working on for the past three years now. I have been putting in my application for the prize for the past three editions but I have not gone up to the top 100. In fact, I lost hope at a point and nearly failed to apply this year.
For this year, I submitted my application on the last day because of the seeming discouragement. It was a dream come true for me when I got the notification that I had been shortlisted for the Global Teacher Prize interview.
I got across to the past winners to demand from them what I should prepare for, but they said nothing, and that I should only prepare to defend what I stated in my application and that was it because the Holy Spirit assisted me in answering all the questions directed at me.
How many of you were picked from Nigeria?
I was the person from Nigeria by God’s grace; three or four of us from West Africa and seven of us from Africa?
What is the financial reward for this prize?
It is $1m which is about N1bn, and what motivated me to apply for this prize was because of the numerous projects that I have in mind to execute to further expand the frontiers of excellence in teaching and learning in Nigeria and Africa. I want to be able to reach many more underserved communities in the continent. I want to scale down my technology-assisted instructional management into an app that students in Africa can use. This and many other projects ahead of me informed my decision to go for this noble prize.
How do you intend to spend money?
I have already written 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.
What does the future hold?
I will remain committed to being among those championing the transformation of education in Nigeria. I want to be among those reshaping our education to suit the emerging challenges. I have been to the Western world; I have seen how things are done there. I have seen the transformation in a US classroom and I think such could be repeated here too.
Many students view Mathematics as very difficult, what is the way out?
That’s why I was talking about the adoption of culturally relevant pedagogy to explain some difficult concepts such as using the students’ primary language to do the explanation and use culturally relevant examples that they are quite familiar with. Don’t use the $ (dollar) sign, instead use naira, don’t use pizza something they have never heard or seen, use kuli-kuli. If you want to use data, don’t just reel out data for them, ask for their ages and use that to form the data; something they can easily relate to, among others.
What has been the challenge?
Students battle with so much distraction, particularly social media. This is the reason I have also been urging our teachers to create useful lessons and drop them on social media. Imagine if 10 teachers in each of the 517 secondary schools in the state are producing useful lesson content in a week, it will be 5,170 contents in a week. So, let’s meet the children online. It is now a global village.
What is your message to the government on the development of education?
Government at all levels should be ready 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.
With this $1m prize, should we believe that a teacher’s reward is no longer in heaven?
Well, it shows that if we all can stay dedicated to our calling as teachers, then the sky is the starting point. I am a perfect example. So, I encourage our teachers to continue to do their very best in their various duty posts. It is my turn this year; it may be your turn next year too.
Now that you are $1m richer, are you not going to dump teaching for a more lucrative business?
I just told you my proposal about how I will be spending the money. So, I am not leaving the profession. The spending is centred on the students and teachers. So, I am going nowhere.
