Today we are launching the TELDEV AI-Ready Schools Initiative (the TARS initiative) to improve how Nigerian schools understand and use technology. We are starting with AI, and we are starting in Lagos.
The TARS initiative brings hands-on workshops into secondary schools: one for SS1 and SS2 students, and one for their teachers. AI is the first topic. Later sessions will cover other ways technology can support teaching and learning.
Why we started it
AI tools are already on students' phones. Many students use them to produce assignments rather than to understand them, and come out of the process knowing no more than when they started. Their teachers are rarely shown what to do about it, and the tools sold to catch AI use are not reliable enough to accuse a student on their word alone. They are also more likely to wrongly flag students who write in English as a second language.
Banning AI stops it in the classroom, not at home. We think the better answer is to teach students to use it properly and give teachers practical ways to keep assessment fair.
What students learn
The student workshop is for SS1 and SS2, the years before WAEC, NECO and JAMB, when good study habits matter most. In small groups, students take a topic from their own syllabus and use AI to:
- explain it in simple terms, then explain it again a different way
- quiz them with exam-style questions and mark their answers
- check what it says against their textbook, because it can be wrong
They leave with a prompt card of questions to ask AI when they study on their own.
What teachers learn
The teacher workshop covers two things. First, using AI to save time on lesson plans, practice questions and marking guides. Second, preventing and responding to misuse: designing assignments AI cannot simply complete, using short oral checks, and setting a clear classroom policy that tells students when AI is allowed and when it is not.
What comes next: SS3
We are also planning a track for SS3 students after their final exams. Many spend months waiting for admission. The SS3 track will focus on practical digital skills they can use to earn, work and keep learning in that time. It is timed after WAEC and NECO so it never competes with exam preparation, and we will share details here when it is ready.
How a school can take part
We provide the facilitators and materials, and devices and internet (for schools without them), so students never need their own phones or accounts. We follow each school's rules on safeguarding and photos.
Outreach to schools across Lagos is under way, and we will post updates as the first workshops take place. If you run or teach at a secondary school and would like the TARS initiative to visit, get in touch, or read more on the TARS initiative page.
