1 Million Teachers

Teachers play a critical role in unlocking the potential of every child and lifting entire communities, hence empowering them provides the single biggest leverage for achieving SDG 4. Unfortunately, the shortage of motivated and trained teachers worldwide continues to grow, and without urgent action, more children won’t have access to a teacher (69 million shortage by 2030 according to UNESCO), than there are today. This is why we are committed to raising a critical mass of empowered teachers. We provide gender responsive, accessible and engaging rewards-based programming that includes training that combines soft skill training with pedagogy, delivered online/offline, in phase 1 of the program, and via community based learning hubs in Phase 2. 

Teachers play a critical role in unlocking the potential of every child and lifting entire communities, hence empowering them provides the single biggest leverage for achieving SDG 4. Unfortunately, the shortage of motivated and trained teachers worldwide continues to grow, and without urgent action, more children won’t have access to a teacher than there are today. Of the estimated 69 million shortage by 2030 according to UNESCO, Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) alone accounts for 17 million. This is also the region with the least ability to cope with the crisis due to lack of financial and other resources, coupled with a rapidly growing population with about 40 percent of the population 18 years and under. Nigeria, the largest country in SSA alone accounts for the highest number of out of school children in the world, at over 10 million, majority of which are girls. A combustive mix of poverty, insurgency, banditry, farmer/herder clashes and the Covid-19 pandemic have ensured that an already dire security situation is getting worse, and getting students to stay in school, particularly girls will require capable teachers who are not only competent, but are empowered and motivated to provide academic and psychosocial support. 

1MT is tackling the teachers shortage at a scale never before attempted by blending world class eLearning with grassroots, community-driven programming  - a unique eLearing/Learning Hub model. We provide professional development to existing teachers and school leaders, upgrading their skill sets to ensure they deliver high-quality education. Our teacher empowerment model begins with comprehensive online teacher training from our eLearning platform hosting over 250 lessons on pedagogy, life skills, and the SDGs. The learning platform is designed to be functional with portable low tech  devices and limited internet access.  Trainees progress from beginner White Belt to advanced Black Belt, acquiring achievement badges in between. 

The Blackbelt milestone is followed by a variety of community-based programming to support learner success and provide future opportunities for teachers to further expand their skills and access employment opportunities with programming such as Professional Learning Communities/Hubs (online/in-person); Empowerment programming: Black-Belt (master) teachers are provided opportunities for further professional development through our Innovation, Academia, Leadership and Specialization pathways. Successful trainees are equipped and incentivized to mentor others, providing additional opportunity to supplement their regular income while helping to build a stronger peer-to-peer community. 

1MT is working towards the realization of SDG 4 - Quality Education - by helping teachers teach effectively - teachers being the most significant factor for enhancing student learning. 1MT also works towards the realization of SDG 5 - Gender Equality, by focusing on female teachers. Anecdotal evidence and research show that teachers are the most significant factor for enhancing students' learning, hence, empowering teachers provides the single biggest leverage for achieving SDG 4. Research also shows that investment in girls' education provides the widest ranging returns, but even more so when female educators are empowered to teach effectively. In both situations we work to remove barriers to learning by not only making teacher education and empowerment accessible, but by ensuring that through our focus on female teachers, the most vulnerable such as girls and women in the most under-resourced communities across the world, and those who live in fragile conflict situations are provided even more support. In all situations we ensure that current and aspiring teachers are able to access our services to support them professionally journey. We are able to offer affordable and often free programs to these individuals through the generosity of donors and partners who share similar commitment to social justice and equity with us, and our programming has a lot of psychosocial support to build antifragility and resilience. Female teachers can be powerful role models that inspire girls and women to dream, break limiting beliefs, and gain self efficacy, thereby taking their rightful place as co-contributors in the economy. Most of our efforts are currently in Sub Saharan Africa, where we have the highest number of out of school children, and where its most populous country, Nigeria has over 10 million children out of school, and in Northern Nigeria where the majority are, the situation is more dire, with at least 53 percent of girls out of school (unicef.org). In Northern Nigeria, these children and youth face significant educational challenges, including structural barriers (poverty, social inequity, gender inequality) and poor quality of teaching, particularly disadvantaging girls (Unterhalter et al., 2013). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these existing inequalities, disrupting education for about 90% of students in the region, most of whom are girls (Obiakor & Adeniran, 2020). In areas where schooling continues, there is limited online access, printed materials, safety training for teachers, and community mobilization to support learning during emergencies. As a result of a lack of education, these girls are at high risk of poverty and are unable to participate in socio-political and economic activities. 

This is why we have designed a gender-responsive teaching and learning program that supports quality education through highly trained educational changemakers to enhance educational outcomes using a distributed delivery model. Without an active gender-responsive training model for these communities, conflicts and equity issues will persist and escalate. A 1MT core program, our women and girls education program is aimed at providing a cost-effective, accessible way of closing gender gaps and addressing poverty; creating avenues that allow more people — especially women and girls — to access fundamental knowledge and skills to contribute meaningfully to economic and social developments, creating a long-term and sustainable impact; reducing barriers to inclusive, safe, quality education for girls, adolescent girls and women through provision of equitable, cost-effective, safe and coordinated provision of innovative, quality, gender-responsive education for girls, adolescent girls and women; Increase the number of female teachers by providing basic education to females for entry into the profession, through on-the-ground, face-to-face professional learning methods (e.g. mentorship) – with female mentor teams assigned regions in order to develop relationships with the female learners, in the process, creating a self-sustaining cycle in which female teachers and female parents inspire and empower girls within and beyond the classroom, and these empowered girls in turn will grow into women who inspire and empower other girls within and beyond the classroom.   

Inclusive and gender responsive - includes paper based literacy, numeracy, and Arts Education learning kits for students distributed through community based learning hubs; offline/online access to learning portal -including low tech WhatsApp based peer led professional learning communities for teachers; learning hubs equipped with portable learning devices for shared use; curriculum that include Life Skills Training, Parental Engagement Strategies, Community and Stakeholder Engagement, Social Emotional Learning, Learning to Learn, Project Based Learning, Placed Based Learning, Differentiated Instruction; Psychosocial training and support for teachers; creation of School Based Management Management Committees to embed program in communities.  

Over 250 courses developed; 15,000+ teachers currently being trained across 11 countries; implementing program with various governments, including the Rwanda Education Board  to train 10,000 teachers; implementing partner for the GPE/UNICEF/Federal Government of Nigeria Community Learning through Alternate Home and Community Based; Partnership with Sterling Bank Nigeria for training of teachers; Partnership with FBN Bank Ghana for training of teachers; partnership with Daikin Charity Fund for the training of teachers; partnership with Girl Rising/HP for training and mentorship of teachers. 

A unique approach that enables the training and empowerment of teachers at a scale never before attempted before by blending world class eLearning with grassroots, community-driven programming  - a unique eLearing/Learning Hub model, with functional learning platform optimized for access by feature phones and limited internet access.  

We are more than a teacher training organization. Beyond the life skills training along with foundational subjects like basic numeracy and literacy and pedagogical knowledge that we provide, we support our trainees with ongoing professional development that includes mentorship, and provision of pathways to lucrative professional teaching careers and job satisfaction. Learning is also supported with agile communities of practice that incorporates both low tech like WhatsApp on feature phones, Zoom and similar interaction methods, and physical meetups.

The Blackbelt milestone is followed by a variety of community-based programming to support learner success and provide future opportunities for teachers to further expand their skills and access employment opportunities with programming such as Professional Learning Communities/Hubs (online/in-person); Empowerment programming: Black-Belt (master) teachers are provided opportunities for further professional development through our Innovation, Academia, Leadership and Specialization pathways. Successful trainees are equipped and incentivized to mentor others, providing additional opportunity to supplement their regular income while helping to build a stronger peer-to-peer community. 

We are currently serving 15,000+ teachers, and are looking to serve 100,000 in the next 1 year, one million within 5 years. 

In addition we are directly  currently serving over 185,000 students, and would be serving at least 250,000 in the next 1 year, and more than one million within the next 5 years. 

We are currently serving over 250 school leaders, and are looking to scale this up to at least 1,000 within the next 1 year, and 5,000 over 5 years.

Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly tracking: number of teachers trained; number of students reached; number of Master Teachers (Blackbelts) created; number of learning hubs setup; number of learning devices distributed; number of female teachers trained; number of girls reached; number of rural communities served; number of school leaders trained; number of advocacy materials, published research findings, and newsletters released; amount of corporate sponsorships and donations received; number of government partners enlisted; total revenue; total expenditure; teachers supported in each country; cost per teacher; average revenue per teacher; customer acquisition cost; total funds raised. 

Ways we track progress include: System Data automatically from program; Surveys, Interviews and Focus Groups; collating stories of change from beneficiaries; Comparison/Control Groups; Measuring Behavioral/Capacity Change (Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices - KAP - Assessments)

Full time - 17; part-time - 5; contractors - 3; numerous volunteers 

We are a team with lived experienced of the problem we are working on; leadership team of diverse men and women from varied socio cultural and religious leanings and race, from several different countries, and from some of the most under resourced communities across the world.

Co-founder, and CEO has over 20 years of working experience most of which is in the education sector and has been involved in many startup initiatives -https://www.linkedin.com/in/hakeemsubair/; Chief Learning Officer, Halima Wali, who is a PhD candidate and who is researching the impact of female teachers on girls education underwent similar socio-cultural situations as many of those we serve - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ha...; Co-founder and CTO, Rizma Butt who is from Pakistan has been influenced and shaped by issues of girls education in her home country - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizma-butt/; Our advisory board chair, His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi II, a UN appointed SDG Advocate has been in the forefront of advocacy for girls education and women empowerment -https://www.linkedin.com/in/mu...

All of our other team members, advisors, and partners like Girl Rising and Queen's University are passionate advocates of gender responsive education and inclusion and have joined forces with 1MT because of their commitment to social justice and equity. 

Ensuring that educators from the communities that we work are trained and empowered to solve problems in their classrooms and communities  because through a grassroots and homegrown teacher development program; Ensuring that the majority of our organization's leadership is led by women, who are the major target of our intervention - this is evident in our leadership team composition - who not only have lived experience but are from one of the most vulnerable communities around the world ; We put our decisions through the lens of our mission to creating inclusive and gender responsive programming that leave no one out; the leadership at our partner university, Queen's University consists of many passionate gender equity champions, and an influential UN appointed SDG gender equity advocate as advisory board chair; As a reflection of who we are, our core team is a cultural mosaic peopled with many global citizens from virtually every ethnicity, particularly Caucasian, Asian, African who share similar passion for making a difference in the world through enhancing opportunities for the most vulnerable from the most under resourced communities around the world. Our goal is to continue to live up to these values and even improve on what we have done so far. 

Funding: to access grants and other financial support to hire 2 Business Development Managers, 2 Instructional Designers, 1 Web Designer, 2 technical support, 2 Graphic Designers, 1 Content Writer; for marketing campaign -including finding an effective positioning of the organization and our programs

Expertise: to get help with developing a narrative for our program through monitoring and evaluation support; to access pro bono professional services from partners and other Solver collaborators 

Visibility: to garner widespread support through media exposure

Support & Mentorship: to access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks; to get support and comradeship from fellow solvers; to access relevant in-kind resources such as software licenses and legal services from Solve Member and partner organizations. 

Most pressing need is to develop a coherent marketing communication strategy, and positioning statement that inspires and generates excitement  for the 1MT approach to enhancing student learning by key segments of the education ecosystem  so that 1MT is top of mind when CSR in education is discussed in corporate circuits, top of mind when governments across Africa consider cost effective and innovative teacher development projects, top of mind when local and INGOs consider teacher development and education projects, top of mind when private schools consider affordable  training for their teachers, top of mind when teachers seek training opportunities.

Human Capital  - looking for Business Development Managers, Instructional Designers, Web Designer, 2 Graphic Designers, 1 Content Writer, advisors

Financial: improving financial and accounting systems, access grants and other financial support

Public Relations: help with developing a compelling narrative and developing effective positioning of the organization and our programs

Monitoring & Evaluation  - development of a corporate narrative; development of M&E framework; support to implement the M&E framework - help with human resources for 1 year to get the system running.

- MIT faculty and students, Solve Members to help with to help craft effective narrative built on a well developed M&E framework

- Andan Foundation to leverage their knowledge, experience, reach, and other resources in supporting our work in the area of promoting refugee resilience, self-reliance and integration

- General Motors to leverage its resources in helping in making STEM education more accessible to under resourced communities in Sub Saharan Africa. 

While this prize may be tailored to schools in the US, I think the world will be a much more better place if other parts of the world are considered. 

The Andan Prize will further accelerate our work our work in the area of promoting refugee resilience, self-reliance and integration

We have just commenced work with Girl Rising and through this arrangement will be working with HP employees in Nigeria to provide mentorship to teachers participating in the Gender Equity pathway of the 1MT Blackbelt program being developed in conjunction with Girl Rising. This pathway further empowers a special cohort of female educators who go on to support the education and empowerment of girls in their communities. This prize will enable us to on board more female educators in the program.

Through our work, we seek to create a self-sustaining cycle in which teachers, particularly female teachers; inspire and empower other teachers beyond the classroom, and these empowered teachers in turn will do the same for others; achieve improved equitable, cost-effective, safe, and coordinated provision of innovative, quality, gender-responsive education for students particularly girls in the most deprived regions of the world. This prize will significantly advance our cause.

Our mission is to enhance learning outcome for at least 40M students in 5 years; create a self-sustaining cycle in which teachers, particularly female teachers; inspire and empower other teachers beyond the classroom, and these empowered teachers in turn will do the same for others; achieve improved equitable, cost-effective, safe, and coordinated provision of innovative, quality, gender-responsive education for students particularly girls in the most deprived regions of the world. To achieve these, we need to leverage big data to support evidenced based decisions that can inform systemic changes for leaders to deliver quality education.

Our mission is to enhance learning outcome for at least 40M students in 5 years; create a self-sustaining cycle in which teachers, particularly female teachers; inspire and empower other teachers beyond the classroom, and these empowered teachers in turn will do the same for others; achieve improved equitable, cost-effective, safe, and coordinated provision of innovative, quality, gender-responsive education for students particularly girls in the most deprived regions of the world. To achieve these, we need to leverage big data to support evidenced based decisions that can inform systemic changes for leaders to deliver quality education.