Sustainability Strategy

A Brief On How We Make Our Teaching Without The Box Project More Sustainable

After recording successes in our Teaching Without The Box Project (Pilot) as a Be The Change Project at Teach For Nigeria – by training one thousand, five hundred educators on inclusive classroom strategies and having a learner reach of over 11,200, we are excited to say we are scaling for the year 2021!

Now a question we always have when it comes to scaling at No Box Initiative is this “how do we make it sustainable?” – same question a host of very effective project managers ask on a daily basis.

With this question in mind, we share this brief about scaling in an effective fashion.

Strategies For Sustainability

To ensure sustainability, the following are put forward from our sustainability framework for the Teaching Without The Box Project scale as they have made the pilot for the project a successful one – which even got to be nominated for the Be The Change Project of the year Award by our mother organization, Teach For Nigeria.

1. Referral Support Mechanisms (RSM)

These are on side support systems put in place to serve as solution tool for educators that encounter challenges while teaching in the classroom such as of a scenario where the literacy teacher wants to put together an individualized instructional plan (IEP) for a student with autism. The plan should be documented and shared with all members of the RSM unit.

The referral support mechanisms include the following individuals:

-Mentor
-Ambassador
-Trainer
-A member of the Schools Based Management Committee (SBMC)
-Head of School

2. Mentorship Programmes for educators in inclusive settings

Here, educators are paired with mentors in a cell for continued support, training, and other forms of help from time to time. These mentors are not without experiences in training from Special Education Needs settings such that includes partners from KADPOLY, The Learners Den, Edu Aid and Teach For Nigeria.

3. Electronic-Based Modules Accessible Without Mobile Data

Besides the print modules handed to educators that are participants of Teaching Without The Box training, we have made modules accessible online for continued learning. More so, we have applied a strategy to ensure that the modules are accessible even without the use of mobile data! Therefore educators from the most remote regions can access them for continued professional development and to keep tabs on more training opportunities.

4. Increase Community Awareness and Capacity of Schools Based Management Committee (SBMC)

Another strategy at ensuring sustainability is by ensuring that community is an intrinsic part of the project. The core representatives of the community is the SBMC and they are sensitized about how to overtly track progress of the project. They are also equipped with adequate understanding of what inclusive education is as well as its relevance – and they are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that its application in schools is nothing short of effective.

5. Stakeholders Support Group (SSG)

The project stakeholders support group is the project unit which is a localized multidisciplinary committee of the entire project implementation. This group comprises of individuals higher up in policy (KADSUBEB and MoE), Community leader, SEN specialist, and the Community Engagement Lead at No Box Initiative. This group act to influence policy for effective implementation of inclusive education in the state while ensuring that project implementation is inclusive.

The Teaching Without The Box Project works on all fronts to develop a sustainability framework from the very outset, which tenets comprised i) reinforcing existing systems and local education institutions; ii) engaging ministries, academies of education and teacher training institution experts in every project initiative through technical working groups; iii) strengthening local partners’ capacity to sustain interventions at the community and school levels; and iv) working with local government partners to identify and mitigate policy constraints and bottlenecks that impede project interventions. The framework factored in certain sustainability variables in particular, such as demand, policy framework, capacity, institutional arrangements, outreach and advocacy, strategic collaborations and accountability.