Throughout Nigeria, conversations about bettering training typically concentrate on educating high quality and curriculum reform. These are vital priorities as a result of they form what and the way kids study.
But, I’ve noticed an equally vital issue that continues to obtain far much less consideration: the design and psychological impression of the areas the place studying takes place. Lecture rooms affect how kids soak up info, how they work together with their friends, how they categorical concepts, and the way assured they really feel of their means to study.
This previous November, once we commissioned the newly renovated solar-powered lecture rooms at Sari-Iganmu Inclusive Faculty, this fact, alongside the significance of facilitating significant modifications, grew to become extra obtrusive.
For the youngsters at this faculty who stay with bodily, sensory, developmental, or cognitive challenges, we noticed the rapid impact of the renovations. With secure electrical energy powering lights, followers, and studying instruments, and visually stimulating murals brightening their house, the lecture rooms had been seen to spark creativity, reinforce cognitive connections, and create a stimulating atmosphere that inspired expressions.
This expertise bolstered a conviction I’ve held for a few years: purpose-designed lecture rooms will not be a luxurious. They’re a foundational component for inclusive and efficient studying.
Why creativity and expression are important in studying
World research on studying psychology more and more present that the emotional and artistic character of a classroom performs a robust function in shaping pupil motivation, cognitive improvement, and engagement. Environments that fail to stimulate curiosity, creativeness, or expression can cut back enthusiasm, slim consideration, and restrict how kids discover concepts. These results are significantly pronounced for otherwise abled learners, who could also be cognitively hindered by an absence of visible, tactile, or structured cues in classes.
Areas enriched with shiny colors, visible prompts, art work, interactive supplies, and technological instruments create an environment the place kids really feel motivated to discover, experiment, and interact in studying actions. The potential of a kid is, subsequently, in lots of respects, vastly proportional to the classroom atmosphere through which they study.
BIC’s long-term dedication to bettering studying situations
At BIC, our philosophy of training is constructed on a easy perception: studying is only when kids can categorical concepts, discover potentialities, and develop expertise in environments that encourage creativeness. Spurred by this perception, we have now dedicated to bettering studying situations for 250 million college students globally by the top of 2025. Guaranteeing that each youngster can attain their full potential no matter means, whereas additionally selling a tradition of studying that’s dynamic, participating, and empowering.
Our training interventions have advanced to deal with each rapid and systemic challenges. Through the years, BIC has partnered with colleges equivalent to Igando Inclusive Faculty, Let It Shine Academy (LISA), and Morit Worldwide Faculty to rework lecture rooms into environments that help significant studying. These engagements centered on equipping lecture rooms with important supplies, bettering the bodily studying atmosphere by way of renovations and higher organisation, and offering accessible instruments that allow kids to take part totally in educational actions.
Past bodily enhancements, BIC has invested within the individuals who form studying outcomes. By means of the Canvas of Change initiative in 2023, greater than 2 hundred lecturers had been educated in fashionable tutorial approaches that emphasise vital pondering, collaborative studying, student-led engagement, and artistic educating methods. These mixed efforts established the inspiration for interventions that deal with each the emotional and cognitive dimensions of studying.
Our current intervention on the Sari-Iganmu Inclusive Faculty highlighted the constructive impression a purposefully designed studying atmosphere can have on each educating supply and pupil engagement. By powering the lecture rooms with a photo voltaic system, we eradicated disruptions attributable to unreliable electrical energy, permitting classes to run constantly and enabling the uninterrupted use of contemporary studying instruments. The set up of inverter-powered followers considerably improved classroom consolation, serving to college students stay centered for longer durations and actively take part in classes. The visible transformation of the house by way of shiny, vibrant murals and fascinating art work additional enhanced the training expertise by stimulating curiosity, reinforcing cognitive engagement, and creating an environment the place college students felt impressed to study.
We additionally centered on strengthening the performance of the lecture rooms. This included upgrading furnishings to help correct posture and higher organisation, putting in new white marker boards and a sensible projector board to raise interactive studying for all, and offering age-appropriate charts, vocabulary aids, and academic supplies to deepen literacy, comprehension, and expressive expertise. Every of those additions was designed to make sure that each youngster advantages from an area that’s each stimulating and supportive.
The outcomes had been evident nearly instantly, with noticeable enhancements in classroom organisation, lesson move, and pupil responsiveness. Lecturers noticed elevated enthusiasm, longer consideration spans, and extra lively participation from college students, underscoring the lasting worth of the intervention.
Learn additionally: Boost for inclusive education as BIC Nigeria unveils solar-powered classrooms in Lagos
A collective duty
Enhancing studying situations requires collaboration throughout a number of stakeholders:
Authorities companies set insurance policies and spend money on infrastructure to make sure protected and accessible studying environments; faculty leaders handle lecture rooms and programmes to fulfill the tutorial, emotional, and bodily wants of scholars.
Communities help colleges by offering sources and fostering a tradition that values training; caretakers and fogeys help college students by offering them with a cushty atmosphere for studying and self-expression.
Non-public organisations, equivalent to BIC, present supplies, expertise, and technical experience to reinforce studying and help inclusivity.
When all events work collectively, lecture rooms turn into participating, stimulating, and empowering areas the place each youngster can thrive academically, socially, and creatively.
The Nigerian training panorama demonstrates that coordinated effort yields lasting impression. When sources, experience, and dedication come collectively, lecture rooms will not be solely purposeful but additionally dynamic environments the place studying can flourish. Sustained collaboration lays the groundwork for techniques that help ongoing improvement, guaranteeing that enhancements profit college students now and into the long run.
A imaginative and prescient for the way forward for inclusive studying in Nigeria
Each youngster deserves a studying atmosphere that ignites curiosity, encourages self-expression, and meets particular person studying wants. When lecture rooms are deliberately designed, they turn into portals to expanded potentialities for all college students no matter bodily, social or cognitive variations.
At BIC, our commitments stay clear: to form instructional experiences that mirror our core values of creativity, self-expression and empowerment. By contributing our quota to remodeling these studying areas and dealing alongside educators and communities, we’re empowering a technology of younger Nigerians geared up to unravel challenges and form the Nigeria we envision.
Amahwe is the final supervisor of BIC Nigeria and writes from Lagos.
