World’s Best School Prizes: Nigerian School Makes Top 10 List

Two Nigerian schools have found their way into the top 10 lists of the World’s Best School Prize albeit in different categories.

T4 Education in partnership with Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture and American Express, is on the Top 10 shortlists for the new $250,000 World’s Best School Prizes.

Similarly, Best Intellectuals Model School, in Ohanku, Aba, Abia State, was named in Top 10 shortlist for World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity.

The World’s Best School Prizes celebrate schools for the pivotal role they play in developing next generation of learners and for their contribution to society’s progress, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

Founder of T4 Education and initiator of World’s Best School Prizes, Vikas Pota, said with over 1.5 billion learners impacted by school and university closures, the pandemic has greatly exacerbated a global education crisis.

He said even before the pandemic, the United Nations had warned that progress was already too slow to achieve universal quality education by 2030.

Pota disclosed that the Top three finalists for each of the five World’s Best School Prizes, namely for community collaboration, environmental action, innovation, overcoming adversity and supporting healthy lives, would be announced later this year.

He said winners would be chosen based on rigorous criteria by a judging academy, comprising leaders from across the globe.

Pota added that winners would be announced in October 2022 at the World Education Week.

According to him, a prize of $250,000 will be equally shared among winners of the five Prizes, with each receiving an award of $50,000.

He added that all 50 shortlisted schools across the five prizes will share their best practices through toolkits that showcase their “secret sauce” to innovative approaches and step-by-step instructions on how others can replicate their methods to help boost education.

Best Intellectuals Model School, situated in Ohanku, Aba, Abia State, made a music video to boost students’ morale in the wake of the pandemic, which went viral in the process.

In 2021, the school faced many crises. With the pandemic lockdown measures and high unemployment rate among other challenges, the conditions faced by the school forced it to reevaluate how it would continue to operate, keep up the morale of demoralised students and the community. It decided to use the healing power of music.