By Elizabeth Osayande

In a remarkable achievement, 

Slum2School Green Academy, located in Epe, Lagos State, has been named among the Top 10 shortlists for the prestigious World’s Best School Prizes 2026. Established by T4 Education in 2022 in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, these five global education awards aim to showcase schools making significant impacts both inside and outside their classrooms. The event has been dubbed the unique ‘World Cup for Schools,’ highlighting the unparalleled and vast global recognition these prizes hold within the education sector.

Slum2School Green Academy uniquely serves 250 underserved children from eight local riverine communities. This excellent charity-run kindergarten and primary school is pioneering a climate-smart learning environment that employs an experiential, inquiry-based learning model. Remarkably, this approach enables students to achieve up to three years of educational progress within a single academic year. The school has been shortlisted for World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action.

The winners across the five categories—Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, and Supporting Healthy Lives—will be determined by an expert Judging Academy using established criteria. The announcement of the Top 3 finalists and winners is scheduled for November. Additionally, all 50 shortlisted schools will participate in a Public Vote, which has commenced  to identify the recipient of the Community Choice Award.

Following this recognition, both winners and shortlisted institutions will be invited to the World Schools Summit in London, UK, on January 16-17, 2027.