The Call To Love Initiative (Call2Luv) has marked 15 years of transforming education for underserved children in Lagos, Ibadan, and southwest Nigeria, calling for reforms and empowering teachers through partnerships with TRCN.
Founder of Cull2Luv, Omowunmi Akingbohungbe, made the call at the organisation’s 15th Anniversary and inauguration of the Affordable and Inclusive Education Index (AIEI) on Saturday in Lagos.
Akingbohungbe, while launching the Affordable and Inclusive Education Index (AIEI), said insights from it showed 61% of teachers surveyed were uncertified, 93% wanted certification, and 67% needed support.
She added that low remuneration and infrastructure gaps were key constraints, hence the call to strengthen partnerships with TLCN to empower teachers.
She described their organization’s shift in approach to education reform, explaining that after 15 years of direct work with communities, schools, and teachers, they realized lacked a structured way to translate insights into evidence for decision-making.
To address this, she said they created the Education Observatory with four core functions: Research and Data Gathering, Policy and Advocacy, Teacher and School Development, and Community and Learning Support. This led to a strategic transition from direct intervention to influencing systems at scale, launching AIEI to make low-cost education realities visible and actionable.
Earlier, Chairman of the 15th Anniversary Planning Committee, Dr Abiola Salami, described education as the oxygen of opportunity and called for urgent support for teacher accreditation and student development programmes.
Salami noted that the organisation had reached 2,000 children, trained 500 teachers, supported 22 low-cost schools, and mobilised 57 million in funding for school improvements in its mission to transform lives beyond statistics.
He urged partners and donors to support the teacher accreditation and summer camp initiatives, emphasising that there were moments in life when an applause was not enough.
“This moment demands commitment beyond convenience, giving beyond comfort, and action beyond admiration,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Ronke Soyombo, Registrar and Chief Executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), said the initiative’s Education Observatory and AIEI would strengthen evidence-based decision-making in Nigeria’s education system.
Soyombo said the data-driven approach was critical to improving learning outcomes and supporting low-cost schools.
“We cannot fix what we cannot measure,” she said.
She reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to teacher certification, noting that by December 2027 all teachers in classrooms must be licensed.
While stressing the importance of keeping children in school and supporting teachers with professional training, she said the street was not a classroom.
Soyombo said that the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway would allow teachers without education degrees to undergo a six-month hybrid certification programme.
She further said efforts were ongoing to secure funding to sponsor at least 100,000 teachers nationwide.
The anniversary featured a panel session moderated by Queenette Kanu, media Executive, with Ayeseminikan Bawo, member Board of Trustees, the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED) and Adepoju Adeola Deborah, Founder of Hope and Support for thr Slum Child initiative and Hope for the Slum floating school, Mamoko, Lagos as panelists on the role of low-cost schools in bridging education gaps: opportunities and risks.
The anniversary also featured a documentary on its alumni, starting with the origin of the initiative, Sunday, showcasing how it have grown from supporting vulnerable children, and orphanages through summer camps, teacher training programmes and school improvement projects.
Call2Luv initiative began in 2011 as a single act of kindness, supporting a young boy named Sunday, a deaf car wash attendant who struggled to raise money for his examinations in his pursuit of university admission.