The Smart Learning Ideathon is an initiative by the Lagos Hub in collaboration with HP to provide young millennials with a platform to solve the pressing issues faced by primary and secondary schools in low-income communities, and thus inculcate a culture of problem-solving and innovation. The need for the hackathon arose as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in primary and secondary school students not being in the classroom for over five months.

To date, COVID-19 driven school closures have impacted over one billion students. In secondary schools, longer school closures could result in an increased risk of dropout for youth, particularly from lower-income groups.

The Problem Statement for the Smart Learning Ideathon is:

How can schools digitize the education system in light of the current transformation?

These solutions would cover these core areas.

●       How can schools improve the readiness of educators’ adoption of technology as a teaching instrument?

●       How can schools in under-served communities participate in this rapid digital adoption in education?

Rooted in Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goal is the education goal, with the aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. According to research conducted by UNICEF, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. The nation cannot afford for this bad statistic to get even worse, hence the best time to create solutions to educate the children is NOW.

 The smart education hackathon will create a platform where creative skilled minds will ideate on how governments, teachers, development organisations, as well as other stakeholders, can transform education in Nigeria, and ultimately improve the education system of the country through smart education.

Today, Nigeria has the largest number of extremely poor people in the world, has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world (13.2 million) and 4 out of 5 persons aged 15-24 are unable to read a full sentence. According to the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu during his 2020 budget presentation, “Lagos faces an existential threat arising from the interplay of demographic and climate change. Lagos will continue to be a magnet for multitudes within and outside Nigeria, in search of jobs and economic prosperity. These levels of migration put phenomenal strain on the physical and fiscal resources of the State”. This infrastructure includes public schools. The growing population of the state and the market forces for education is responsible for the emergence and growth of low-cost private schools.

Therefore the smart education hackathon will highlight innovative smart solutions to the current primary and secondary school education system so that truly no child is left behind in the “New normal”.

Scope of Event

The smart learning Ideathon will be a completely in-person virtual event, slated to run from July 11 - 17th 2020. The Ideathon will feature young tech literate in teams of 3 participating in a week-long remote Ideathon, coming up with innovative solutions and tech products relating to smart education for primary and secondary schools in low-income communities in Nigeria.

This Ideathon is unique in that it brings together developers, designers, business developers, project managers and tech enthusiasts from Nigeria to work on a common solution remotely.

In order to participate one needs to have completed the 2 hour HP Life Design Thinking course and be a certified Design Thinking Practitioner in order to encourage a different approach to think about the problem.

This year, in response to COVID-19’s developments, and in line with global precautions for social distancing, the Ideathon will be an entirely virtual event. Participants will communicate via Slack and the winners will be selected by a panel of experienced and expert judges.

The winning teams were provided HP laptops and other fantastic prizes.