Age
10
Country of Residence
Nigeria
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
The spark happened during break time at Lisabi Nursery and Primary School in Ijoko, Abeokuta. While most pupils were outside playing, I noticed a few of my classmates sitting quietly with open books, struggling to read simple words. When I walked over to help them sound out letters, their eyes lit up with excitement the moment they read a full sentence on their own. My "Aha!" moment came right then. I realized that my fellow learners did not lack the desire to read; they lacked individual attention and access to simple storybooks. I thought to myself, if I can help one classmate understand a page during recess, what if we organized a group of Primary 5 pupils to support others every single break time? With guidance from my mentor, Fellow Taiwo, we realized that children often learn best from their peers because they feel comfortable, safe, and free from fear of making mistakes. We saw that our break time could be turned into a powerful learning space for both our school and children around our community. The biggest potential for success lies in our unity. Even though many families in our community cannot afford extra textbooks, we can bridge this gap by sharing the books we have, making simple reading cards, and standing by each other. Helping my peers read and write is not just a project to me, it is giving every child in Ijoko the chance to discover their true confidence.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
We encourage others to join by making reading fun, visible, and rewarding. At Lisabi Nursery and Primary School, we share short story readings and progress stories during morning school assemblies. Seeing fellow Primary 5 pupils step up as leaders inspires other classmates to join as peer tutors. So far, we have engaged around twenty people, including 4 pupils who volunteered as tutors and 5 teachers and parent representatives who wants to help organize book donations. To spread awareness in our wider community, we plan to launch weekend community storytelling sessions under shaded open spaces in Ijoko Abeokuta. During these sessions, we will invite parents and neighbors to watch young learners read aloud, demonstrating how much potential every child has when given simple support. Moving forward, we want to start a Community Book Drive campaign. We will visit local churches, mosques, and market groups to talk about why literacy matters and invite people to donate gently used children storybooks. We will also introduce simple Peer Hero badges for our student tutors. By celebrating every small success publicly, we show our community that helping children read is a goal everyone can contribute to.
How many people are on your team?
4
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
At this early stage, our vision of impact starts directly in our Primary 5 classrooms and spreads across Lisabi Nursery and Primary School. We aim to train ten dedicated peer tutors who will support at least forty primary school pupils who currently struggle with basic reading and writing. Success will mean that within six months, every participating learner moves from recognizing simple letter sounds to reading full short stories independently. We also plan to gather at least one hundred books to build our first permanent community book bank, ensuring that lack of reading materials never stops a child from learning again. Beyond numbers, true impact will look like transformed confidence. We will see shy learners raising their hands in class with pride because they can finally read the board. We will see break time turned into a vibrant space of learning and friendship. By empowering young learners to teach one another, this project will prove that children do not have to wait until they are adults to make a lasting difference in Ijoko Abeokuta.
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
In many public primary school settings across Ogun State, foundational literacy remains a primary barrier to academic progression. This proposal outlines a child led literacy intervention conceived by me Ridwan Shorunke, a Primary 5 pupil at Lisabi Nursery and Primary School. Recognizing that many of my classmates cannot read or write, I have committed to spending my daily school break time and weekends for learners in the community in teaching them.
Project title
Peer Reading Club Initiative
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Many children in our school and local community struggle to read and write basic sentences. At Lisabi Nursery and Primary School in Ijoko Abeokuta, many pupils want to learn, but their families cannot afford extra textbooks or storybooks at home. In class, our teacher work hard to teach everyone, but some of my colleagues who are behind often feel shy or afraid to ask for help in front of the whole classroom. Over time, they fall further behind in every subject because reading is the foundation for all learning. This problem matters deeply to me because they are my friends, classmates, and neighbors. When they cannot read, they miss out on expressing their thoughts, feeling confident, and succeeding in school. In our Ijoko community, education is the best pathway to a brighter future. Seeing my peers left behind because they lack simple books or extra practice breaks my heart. I believe that no child should be left in silence or feel ashamed simply because they need a little extra time and guidance to master their letters and words.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next three months, we will launch our project by finalizing peer tutor selection and conducting practical training sessions with guidance from Fellow Taiwo. We will also launch a community book drive to collect donated storybooks from families, local leaders, and partner schools to stock our initial book bank chest at Lisabi Nursery and Primary School. Within six months, we plan to fully establish our daily break time reading sessions and expand our weekend learning circles into two nearby communities in Ijoko Abeokuta. We will conduct monthly reading checks to celebrate learner progress with simple awards and certificates, boosting pride and attendance. Looking ahead to the full year, our goal is to scale this model by training a new cohort of Primary 4 pupils to take over leadership as we graduate, ensuring the project continues seamlessly. We also hope to partner with neighboring primary schools across Ogun State to help them set up their own student led peer literacy clubs, proving that young learners everywhere can drive real educational change.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Our project is innovative because it shifts literacy from a top down adult teaching model to a student led peer movement right inside daily school routines. Most reading interventions rely on adult tutors or expensive digital gadgets that schools in our community cannot access. Instead, we use existing break times to turn primary school pupils into direct learning champions for one another. Rather than relying on traditional, expensive textbooks that families cannot afford, we introduce a community book bank system combined with student created learning kits. Primary 5 mentors work together to design hand written sight word cards, decodable sentence charts, and simple story cards. This means learning materials are reusable, flexible, and completely tailored to the level of our peers. Furthermore, we break down the fear of failure. Many struggling learners feel self conscious around adult teachers, but they open up instantly when learning from a classmate who speaks like them and understands their daily struggles. By training young learners to lead literacy circles both during break times at Lisabi Nursery and Primary School and in local neighborhood spaces over weekends, we create a self sustaining learning culture owned entirely by the children of Ijoko Abeokuta.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
My solution is a peer to peer literacy club led by me during break time, after school hours and weekends. Working with my mentor, Fellow Taiwo, we pair capable readers with pupils who need help reading and writing. Instead of waiting for expensive books, we are planning to build a simple community book bank filled with storybooks, reusable writing boards, and hand made sight word cards that learners can share. Every break time, our peer mentors meet with me for twenty minutes. We break our sessions into three simple steps. First, we practice letter sounds and sight words using flashcards. Second, we read short stories together, taking turns to sound out words. Third, we use the chalkboard to practice tracing and writing sentences so learners get immediate feedback without any pressure or grade judgment. Beyond the school gates, we extend these reading circles to children in the Ijoko community during weekends. By making reading fun, friendly, and accessible, we remove the fear of failure. Peer mentor grow as patient young leaders, while struggling readers gain a trusted friend who encourages them every single day.
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Our team has four key members. I serve as Project Lead, coordinating peer tutors and leading daily reading sessions. Two fellow Primary 5 pupils serve as Peer Tutor Leaders, helping organize break time groups and managing book materials. Our fourth member is Fellow Taiwo, who serves as Teacher Mentor, guiding our training, tracking progress, and ensuring safety. We share leadership by holding weekly check ins where every member gives ideas and helps make decisions together.
