Carolyn Hall, the Executive Vice-Chair of Laptops for Learning has received an MBE in this years Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to education and environmental awareness in Nigeria.
Carolyn began her long career in Zaria where she worked for the then Kaduna State Ministry of Education teaching in the UPE College. From there she moved to Maiduguri where she set up the Maiduguri International Primary School. Starting with 10 children in a garage the school grew to become the most successful school in the North East of the country and today has a population of 2,000 students aged from 3 yrs to 18 yrs.
From Maiduguri she moved to Lagos and joined the Nigerian Conservation Foundation where she established their Education Department. Working closely with the Federal Ministry of Education she was influential in having Environmental Education integrated into the National School Curriculum. She also developed the network of school conservation clubs, initiated the annual NCF Art & Essay Competition, facilitated the establishment of Environmental Education Units in the University of Calabar and the Benin Teacher Training College, ran Environmental Education workshops for teachers and published Tortoise, an environmental magazine for children.
In October 2010 she came together with a group of concerned individuals to set up Laptops 4 Learning (L4L), a Not-For-Profit Organization Limited by Guarantee. This group includes her husband Phil Hall, Tomi Davies, Abimbola Okoya-Urey, Diana Johnson, Ria Mastoroudes, Tunde Arogunmati, Funmi Onabolu and Ayo Kusamotu.
With the belief that the social and economic world of the future will be dominated by screen-based technology L4L’s goal is to provide primary school teachers and children in Nigeria with access to all types of computers, software, content, training and a conducive environment that will empower them to learn, explore, experiment and express themselves in creative and productive ways that will ultimately bring about transformative change in Nigeria.
For the past year L4L has been running a pilot project in Kuramo Primary School, Victoria Island, Lagos, the objective of which was to develop a replicable programme for primary schools across Nigeria. L4L provided technical and soft skills training for the teachers, laptops for the teachers and students, internet access and on-going technical support. Activities are centred on the L4L Club, an after-school activity which is open to all children in primary 4-6. Each child has access to his/her own laptop as do teachers who are there to facilitate the learning process using a ‘learning by doing’ approach. The club activities take place in the L4L Clubhouse, a classroom dedicated for the exclusive use of L4L which has been completely refurbished to provide a conducive and modern environment in which the children and teachers can immerse themselves in the world of ICT. By the end of the 2011/2012 school year over 150 children will have been exposed to using a laptop, become familiar with the screen-based technology, learnt how to search the internet and send emails. The focus of L4L’s programme is on teachers and children in Public Primary Schools. It is an inclusive initiative in that teachers, parents and the local community are all involved. A very important element of the L4L programme is the Public/Private Partnership which has seen L4L working closely with the State and Local Government Education Authorities on the Kuramo pilot project which was funded by Flour Mills Nigeria.