The fourth edition of our Education Convention themed “Rethinking Education: Adapt, Adjust & Achieve” held in virtually (Zoom & Youtube) this year, for the first time. The Education Convention is one of the initiatives the Foundation uses to improve the quality of education for the underprivileged children in Nigeria by improving the quality of Nigerian Teachers. Through the convention, Meadow Hall Foundation provides a platform for teachers, school leaders, school owners, parents, community members and leaders as well as government and policy-makers to gain fresh perspectives on pertinent educational issues from their interactions with Nigerian teachers and educational experts.

The convention commenced with the lovely Ayo Mairo-Ese welcoming our participants into the virtual conference room, which she labeled the “new normal” due to the post-effect of the Covid-19 on the world.

“In the past one year, we have seen a change around the world,” She began. “And the pandemic, the covid-19 pandemic, has changed the way we know life to be, including the education sector. Now for the fourth edition, the fact that we are having it virtually is testament to the fact that things have changed and we are adapting to what is popularly known as the new normal.”

Rethinking Education: Adapt, Adjust and Achieve was born out of the need to sustain education as we implement new systems due to the changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shortly after, she introduced our panel moderator for the first panel session – Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju. Popularly known as Dr. Mo, she expressed her delight with the theme of the convention because covid has redesigned the world.

“The systems that were once a necessity, put in place for our functionality have all be restructured, pretty much,” She said. “So, we have had to reassess our current situation to find sustainable means of survival. Covid has put everyone in a bit of a tricky spot; but it is further proof that humanity will always triumph in any situation because we can adapt, we can adjust and we can achieve.”

Dr. Mo then invited our panelists to the stage – Mr. Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu (Managing Partner, GrandCentral), Mrs. Yinka Obafisoye (Head of School, Meadow Hall School), Mrs. Funke Fowler-Amba (Director, Vivian Fowler), Nike Akerele-De Souza (Education & Employability Specialist), discussing the theme of the Convention – Rethinking Education: Adapt, Adjust & Achieve. What followed was an hour of very intense and intellectual discussions from our panelists. You can watch the session HERE.

We had the privileged of having our keynote address be delivered by the Honorable Commissioner of Education for Lagos State, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, who delivered the most amazing speech.

“The way we ran schools during the pandemic,” She said. “it was innovative, I agree, in some ways, but for me, in many instances, what I saw was that all we did was to transfer our normal pedagogical practice, our normal classroom practices from the classroom online. That is the same limited range of instructional strategies in the classroom, the same limited range of assessment, methodologies, in the classroom. So, at the end of the day it wasn’t that great; as great as it should have and would have been.”
You can listen to the rest of her speech here: Instagram/Youtube.

What followed was a beautifully written and delivered spoken word rendition titled “Public Service Accountment” by Ms. Koromone “KK’ Koroye, Manager Edutrix, Techcabal. To see her performance, please click HERE.

The Convention divided out into breakout sessions after a quiz sponsored by Google Nigeria following the spoken word rendition. These sessions included:

• Teaching and the Future of Work facilitated by Mr. Ola Opesan (Maxpot)
• Teacher Professional Development and using technology to support teachers facilitated by Mr. Ebuka Ufere (Google Nigeria)
• Getting It Right in Our Schools facilitated by Mr. Johnson Abbaly (LightField House International)
• School Owners’ Workshop: School Financial Management facilitated by Ms. Kaleyemi Kalesanwo (Stanbic Bank)

At the end of the breakout sessions, all the participants were welcomed back to the main room with a TedX talk by Ms. Tundun Olugbenro, a Meadow Hall College student, titled “I Am Not Your Stereotype.” You can watch it HERE

Afterwards, Mrs. Mairo-Ese introduced the panel moderator – Mrs. Vibha Kothari-Singh, for the Stories Worth Sharing Panel session.

“Today, we are going to talk about stories,” Mrs. Kothari-Singh began. “As a child, you’ve always known your anecdotes, you remember your anecdotes. A child always relates to any item through stories and that’s what we over here are about to give to you. We are about to give you stories and experiences from four wonderful panelists that we have here today.”

As the name of the session implies, it was created for the purpose of sharing stories to learn from their experiences. Our panelists for the session were Mr. Olalekan Adeeko (Winner, INSEA 2018 Teacher Category. Founder, TEDPRIME), Mr. Soji Megbowon (Winner, INSEA 2019 teacher category. Convener, STEM CLUB), Mrs. Tajirinere Ukeje (Founder/Lead Instructor, Techiest Kids Zone) and Ms. Gbemisola Alonge (Development Analyst, Stears Business). This session was as delightful as it was insightful. It took us into bubbles we didn’t know existed. You can watch the session HERE.

The ‘Stories Worth Sharing’ Panel session was the last order of the day and the closing remarks was given by the Founder of the Foundation, Dr. Kehinde Nwani.

The Education Convention was sponsored by
1. Google Nigeria
2. Stanbic IBTC
3. GTBank
4. Lakeshore Cancer Centre
5. Nestle Nigeria
6. Choice Dental

Here is the Education Convention Event Brochure

Together, we can improve the quality of education in Nigeria for generations to come. Meadow Hall Foundation is open to partnerships. For enquiries: ciwobi@meadowhallfoundation.org /08110601145