Kiwe

To provide educational counselling services and free learning materials to improve education completion outcomes amongst Nigerian public school students

One thing I hope to achieve with "Kiwe" is connecting tertiary education students with public secondary/primary school students to share their educational journey stories and hopefully stir up hope and hunger for success in the public school students. The tertiary students would be recruited from polytechnics and universities in the surrounding area. They would be volunteers and would be required for just an hour a week. 
Also, many public students cannot afford books and other resources to help with their education. To solve this, I would collect used books from student donors at other private schools. Instead of dumping their used books after a grade, private school students would be given the option of donating their books to their less privileged counterparts. This program would run in select schools.

In the past few years, I have visited a few Nigerian public primary and secondary schools and one thing I have noticed is the seeming lack of engagement amongst students. At any given time of the day, there are student walking around. The student to teacher ratio in these schools is astronomically small due to poor funding, hence there's no substantial supervision for students. Coupled with students' inability to afford educational materials like books, stationery etc., a poor performance in standardized examinations is unavoidable. And that's even if they get to the class where they are able to take these exams. Some don't. Majority of those who complete their secondary education cannot study their choice courses in the university because of the quality of education they receive and some don't bother with the university.

According to research, only 49 percent of primary school graduates proceed to secondary school. This is terrible. A primary education can only take a student so far. It cannot bring substantial development or improve standards of living. 

Counselling and material intervention is urgent for both these groups of students.

I imagine an ordinary public school student struggling to make something out of life. His parents know little about the educational system and they are poor. The student goes to school regularly, gets little from his classes because the class is super large and there's no public address system. The student comes back home to an under-resourced community to hawk his/her parent's goods for money. His parents obviously cannot afford to buy the school materials necessary for him to study and pass exams. As a result, this person finds passing examinations very difficult. The government underfunds their schools so there's a scarcity of resources that would help the student reach his/her goals. Life's generally difficult and so this student cannot reach his/her goals. Kiwe aspires to serve these types of students by providing counselling support and educational materials. As we grow, we hope to start tutorials for interested students. This, we believe, would bring about a better community.

I recently visited a local public school to revisit the situation. It was 11 am and I took a look around. It was roudy. I met with the vice-principal and told him my ideas. He smiled, a little occupied with something he was doing and asked me to wait to meet the principal. I couldn't meet with the principal however as he had to go for a meeting. As I write this, I plan on going back to that school on Friday. I have also engaged in social discussions on the effectiveness of the public school system and what could be done to improve education completion outcomes.

I selected "concept" because I have only thought of and dreamed of what could happen with "Kiwe". A situation where public school students have equal access to tertiary education as private school students. It's very feasible and I see myself achieving it. 

I expect to serve a 100 students this year

Bureaucracy in public schools.