To be the best, beat the best. Or learn from the best. Learning would be more appropriate, since we are talking about Education and not Combat Sports.

So, who is learning from who?

With the Lagos State Comprehensive Schools Programme, launched earlier in the year, already showing signs of becoming a huge success, the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is taking active steps to ensure its success.

Through its Ministry of Education, and in partnership with the Government of Finland, the State recently sent a group of selected teachers and coordinators in the programme on a two-week training course at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Finland.

During this time (18th April – 1st May, 2022), the group was immersed in the workings of an education system long ranked the best in the world. The aim is to pick up on teaching methodologies and strategies which could be incorporated into the State’s Comprehensive Schools Programme for the best possible results.

Finland is widely acclaimed for its student-centred approach to learning, and in a stress-free environment. Education in the Scandinavian nation is built on a guiding principle where teachers are encouraged to develop their inner skills; collaborate with other professionals to improve the national curriculum; and this makes for constant innovation.

Adebayo Sodiq, a teacher from Lagos Education District I1, alongside his colleagues, witnessed innovation first-hand when he sat in at a project presentation on recycling plastic to form rings, earrings, and other items at Ylojarvi Upper Secondary School. “I was impressed by the confidence of the students and the obvious depth of their know-how. It was also an eye-opener on how learning can move from the pages of textbooks into practical and useful purposes.”

It is a testament to the flexibility of an education system where all learners are accommodated as to leave no dead end in the system.

This is very similar to the vision of the Lagos Comprehensive Schools Programme and offers a specific equivalent in the Finnish JOPO Programme which is designed to help struggling students regain motivation and prevent dropout.

“JOPO is like a mirror image of our Comprehensive Schools Programme, only bigger.”, reasons Bunmi Abiloye, an Education District VI6 tutor. “With elements like activity-based and on-the-job learning, individual learning plans, as well as school camps, field trips, study visits, internships and team building that help expand and improve our scope.”

Team building and collaboration are a major pillar of Finnish education. While its approach places the student front and center, the input of the teachers, other professionals, and communities in different environments, cannot be overstated.

The second week of the course saw the group pay visits to Tampere High School of Technology, the Tampere Adult Education Centre, various vocational colleges, and JOPO Lower and Upper Secondary Schools.

On the impact of the training has made on the group and how it they plans to transfer such learnings to the Lagos State Comprehensive Schools Programme.

“The conventional school setting of teacher, students and classroom is history.”, concludes Adejare Judah, another teacher in the group.

“The learning environment has become a much wider field comprising not just the teacher and students, and textbooks but also vocational and skills training incorporating input from other resource persons and technology. We plan to take what we have learned back to enhance the Comprehensive Schools Programme in Lagos State and Public Secondary School Education in Nigeria as a whole.”