In a country where many children go to school without learning, this community-driven model is helping students read, thrive, and dream again, one playful lesson at a time.
The Spark That Started It
A 17-year-old in Primary 6, Idris sat quietly in a public classroom at LEA Dawaki, struggling to read simple words. In 2024, he could barely write his name without help. Yet, he had been in school for years. Stories like his are not rare. Across Nigeria, many children attend school without learning.
When the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) released the 2025 UTME results, only 420,415 out of 1.9 million candidates scored above 200. Even after a resit in some states, 1.3 million still fell short. These numbers raised concern, but for those familiar with public education, they confirmed what many already knew: something isn’t working.
Teach the Child Initiative, a Nigerian NGO, is taking a different approach. They don’t just focus on access to school; they focus on learning. Their programme blends play-based activities with the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) method, helping children like Idris catch up. It’s practical, simple, and child-centred.
In public schools where teachers are often overwhelmed and resources are limited, this model helps educators reach children at their learning level. The goal isn’t flashy reform, it’s helping children learn to read, write, and understand, one lesson at a time.
That first experiment in 2020 started with 40 children and a simple idea: help them learn, despite everything working against them. Most of them came from families already stretched thin, where school had long slipped down the list of daily priorities. While private schools shifted to Zoom and Google Classroom during the pandemic, public school students, especially those from low-income homes, were left behind. For many, that break from school became permanent.
From her home in a quiet part of Abuja, Pearl Utuk, Founder of the Teach the Child Initiative, watched as children, many far too young to be working, wandered the streets instead of being in school.
“I saw children who were co-breadwinners for their families, hawking or jaywalking. We would later discover that the indefiniteness of the school shutdown was almost one year. This was the birth of Teach the Child. We weren’t even an organisation then; we were just a group of young people with experience in development who wanted to contribute in some way to solving a problem in the neighbourhood,” says Utuk.
Pearl’s work in development, especially as a former Programmes Manager at Connected Development and a Mandela Washington Fellow, shaped her response. She had seen children with potential lose their way because of poverty, poor infrastructure, or insecurity. She knew what the stakes were.
“In the course of my work in international development since 2015, it has become commonplace to find diamonds in the rough, intelligent children in poor communities, which also means limited access to agency,” says Utuk.
After a needs assessment, the team decided to build something practical: a model where learning spaces could be community-based, flexible, and grounded in both literacy and digital skills. They raised $3,000, brought in 11 volunteers, and worked closely with families. The goal was clear: give every child a fair chance to build a future they could own.
Their model uses talking books, digital pens in indigenous languages, board games, and Edtech tools to meet learners at their level. Beyond the classrooms, the organization has been able to replicate learning spaces in public schools in Nigeria while pushing for policy shifts through partnerships like the 100 Youths Project with LEAP Africa and the National Youth Future Fund, using advocacy, social media, and community dialogue to press for education reform.
Learning Spaces for SDG 4 – TEACH THE CHILD INITIATIVE
Play Changes Everything
This hands-on approach has made learning feel less like a chore and more like something children want to return to. In Teach the Child Initiative’s learning spaces, play isn’t a break from learning; it’s how learning happens. Research has shown that play-based learning can lead to improvements in academic performance and the development of critical social and emotional skills.
Children interact with board games that reflect their everyday language, including local slang and Nigerian languages. Talking pens and books speak to them in their mother tongue, removing the pressure of trying to learn through a language they don’t fully understand. For children facing literacy challenges, these tools help build confidence.
The approach is not just about activity. It follows a structure shaped by the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) method. TaRL groups learners based on what they can currently do, not just how old they are or what grade they’re in. This shift is especially helpful in overcrowded public schools where one-size-fits-all methods leave many behind.
Daniel, a Primary 3 student in a public school, was one of those falling behind. After joining the learning space, his test scores rose by 16% in just a few weeks. That kind of change doesn’t happen overnight, but it shows what becomes possible when the focus shifts to meeting each child where they are.
The work doesn’t stop with the students. Teachers are part of this shift, too. Through capacity-strengthening workshops, educators are introduced to practical tools and strategies that respond to the needs of their classrooms. These workshops focus on understanding how children learn and how play can become part of everyday teaching.
This way, the methods used with students like Daniel aren’t left behind when the programme moves on. Teachers are better equipped, classrooms become more responsive, and learning becomes something children can actually enjoy, sometimes for the first time.
This focus on teaching methods and teacher support becomes even more relevant when you look at the wider picture. So far, Teach the Child Initiative has worked with over 5,000 children, reached 22 communities, supported 38 schools, and trained 187 educators. That kind of reach needs more than good intentions; it needs systems that help track progress and adjust along the way.
Every programme comes with a detailed Monitoring and Evaluation framework. This isn’t just a checklist. It’s a way of connecting what’s being done daily in the learning spaces to the bigger outcomes the team hopes to see. And because working in Nigeria means facing shifting realities, they don’t plan with fixed expectations. They plan for change. Their Risk Management framework helps prepare for that, allowing the team to respond, not just react.
These structures matter, especially now. Nigeria introduced a new basic education curriculum in January 2025, after 12 years. The updated curriculum includes skills like Information Technology and robotics, which feels timely. Only 7% of young people aged 15 to 24 in Nigeria have ICT skills, according to recent data. Still, the issue goes deeper. A 2023 UNICEF report shows that only 27% of children aged 7–14 in Nigeria can read at a basic level. That’s not a gap digital skills alone can close.
“Children in Nigeria struggle with foundational literacy as a result of inadequately trained educators, ill-equipped classrooms, poor teaching methodology, and classrooms overcrowded with children with different learning needs and learning styles. It’s impossible for these educators to adapt their teaching styles to the learning needs of such a diverse classroom,” says Utuk, pointing to the daily realities behind these numbers.
The existing Teacher–Student Ratio Policy remains largely unimplemented, and the effects show up in real time: in slow reading, missed concepts, and quiet frustration. And yet, progress is visible. The organization doesn’t rely solely on numbers. For them, hearing a child sound out words they once struggled with is often the clearest proof that something is working.
Roots Deep, Reach Wide
That kind of progress only happens when efforts are grounded in real communities. Teach the Child’s work is shaped by people who understand their own context. One of its first Learning Spaces was set up inside an unfinished church in Dawaki village, Abuja, offered temporarily by a local chief who saw value in the work. That willingness to give space, even when it’s incomplete, reflects the trust the community placed in the project.
Support from institutions like the National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), FCT UBEB, and Local Education Authorities has helped strengthen that foundation. These partnerships allow the organisation to work within existing systems rather than around them. Collaboration extends to school principals, PTA leaders, and private sector stakeholders. Together, they promote the use of EdTech tools like talking books and pens that speak in indigenous languages. These tools are backed by teacher training focused on play-based methods and the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach.
Support has also come from outside Nigeria. In November 2023, Teach the Child partnered with Crossing Borders in Denmark to launch “Learning Spaces for SDG 4” in public schools. And in 2025, Delta Sigma Theta sorority in New York supported the annual programme “The World Beyond Our Village.” That programme gives public school students a chance to see life outside their immediate environment. It started with 30 students, taking them to places like tech fairs, art boot camps, and museums—places they’d likely never have access to otherwise.
This openness to collaboration goes both ways. Interns from the University of Virginia and the African Leadership Academy have worked with Teach the Child through their global internship programmes. That exchange of knowledge across communities and continents makes room for shared learning, not just charity. The goal is simple: keep building environments where more children can learn and thrive.
Still, not everything moves as smoothly as planned. Teach the Child faces hurdles that go beyond classrooms. Delayed responses from policymakers are common.
“Advocacy visit requests go unanswered for months, directly stalling the commencement of our programmes,” says Utuk.
Strikes from labour unions also interrupt learning. When these occur, the team pauses projects and updates its donors. These interruptions slow momentum, but they don’t stop the work.
Another concern is structural. The current education system leaves many graduates without practical skills. That gap makes it harder for young people to support themselves or contribute meaningfully to their communities. Instead of getting stuck, the team adjusts. They run teacher training sessions, review their approach mid-project, and hold regular knowledge-sharing sessions. These efforts allow them to keep improving their literacy model based on feedback from real classrooms.
Looking ahead, the team is working to expand access to its programme, “The World Beyond Our Village,” so that at least 200 children benefit each year. The hope is to keep this going long-term, even in difficult seasons. Utuk puts the reason simply:
“If children lack basic literacy skills such as reading and writing, their access to opportunities that would improve their economic circumstances as adults is greatly limited.”
That gap feeds into poverty, and poverty feeds inequality. This is the cycle the organization is trying to break. What’s working in places like Zambia offers perspective. After applying the Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) method across 75% of public schools there, twice as many children gained foundational skills within 100 days. That kind of shift is not out of reach for Nigeria. Teach the Child is already showing what’s possible when public school learning becomes playful, community-driven, and rooted in the child’s reality.
Change doesn’t start with a sweeping policy. It starts in learning spaces—sometimes in unfinished churches, sometimes in a rented room—with tools children understand, languages they speak at home, and games that make sense to them. That’s what Play-Based Learning and TARL offer. It’s practical. It works. It respects the child.
This work needs stronger policy support, more teachers trained, and louder backing from public and private partners. But progress is happening. A child’s ability to read or count shouldn’t depend on their postcode. If you’ve made it this far, maybe you believe that too. To follow or support the work, check out Teach the Child on LinkedIn or watch their projects unfold on YouTube.
Reviewed by Adetoro Adetayo & Tomi Abe, Co-Publishers & Editors of Susinsight
