A student who once missed school to pursue vocational training elsewhere is now learning those skills within the school system. Another, after leaving junior secondary school, carried an idea for a Changemakers Club to his new senior secondary school. Elsewhere, students are turning waste into useful products, teaching one another digital skills and holding menstrual-health awareness activities.
These examples have emerged from the Changemaker Teacher Activation Programme, known as CTEACH, which recently graduated its third cohort in Lagos.
Rather than introduce another subject, CTEACH encourages teachers to build critical thinking, empathy, leadership, collaboration and problem-solving into regular classroom activities. The aim is to help students move from identifying problems to developing practical responses.
The change has also affected the way teachers interact with their students.
Shalewa Ololade, an Assistant Director in Education District 3, said she became interested in the programme after observing participating teachers give students more confidence to express their views, raise concerns and suggest improvements in their schools.
“We are not teachers anymore who just come to the classroom just to teach and let the students memorise. That is not our work anymore,” Ololade said.
“Our work now is to bring up ambassadors. To bring up changemakers. To bring up voices that are heard.”
The results can be seen in a range of student-led activities. Some pupils have beautified classrooms, converted waste into useful products and developed anti-bullying games designed to promote empathy. Others have supported classmates experiencing difficulties.
At Araromi Junior Secondary School, CTEACH ambassador and teacher Okeinde Omoyuwa said the programme helped the school respond to absenteeism linked to vocational training.
Some students had been regularly missing classes because they left school to acquire vocational skills. Teachers responded by introducing vocational and entrepreneurship training within the school.
Omoyuwa also recalled a former junior secondary school student who continued the initiative after moving to senior secondary school. The student later contacted her with plans to establish a Changemakers Club at the new school.
At Badore, Ajah, another participant, Alamu Oluwadamilare, said CTEACH had helped teachers create opportunities for students to connect classroom lessons with real-life challenges.
Students at his school formed a change advocates club, organised digital-skills training for classmates and conducted menstrual-health awareness activities. They were also taught how to link their solutions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Education is not just about reading and writing. It is meant to develop the potential of these children and make them useful citizens to themselves, their community and the nation,” Oluwadamilare said.
The programme was implemented as a three-year pilot under the global Time for Change partnership involving Ashoka, First Book and Teach For All. In its final cohort, 400 teachers were trained, while 200 graduated at the Lagos ceremony.
Angelou Ezeilo, Programme Director and Co-President of Ashoka Africa, said students need skills beyond literacy and numeracy to navigate an increasingly complex society. She said the programme had encouraged teachers to guide students towards taking action rather than merely recognising challenges.
Although the pilot has ended, Ezeilo said CTEACH would continue through a train-the-trainer model. Ten educators were recognised as ambassadors at the ceremony and will help extend the approach to other teachers alongside representatives of previous cohorts.
The organisers also plan to expand the model across Nigeria. Ezeilo said similar initiatives were being developed in Johannesburg, South Africa; Senegal; and Nairobi, Kenya.
She called for greater support from private-sector organisations and other partners to sustain the programme, particularly in public schools where access to educational resources remains limited.
A student who learns to confront bullying, teach a classmate a digital skill, turn waste into something useful or organise others around a community concern is acquiring capabilities that extend well beyond the examination hall.
That is the larger promise of changemaking in education: giving young people not only knowledge, but the confidence and practical skills to put it to work.
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