Please tell us a little about yourself .
My name is Lanre Oke. I am the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Teleschools Digital Education System Limited, a company created to deliver access to digital learning systems and facilities for every Nigerian child of school age. I am an Engineer by training but I have spent the last three and a half decades in marketing management, general management and executive management for different international and local companies in the FMCG, Telecommunications, Satellite Broadcast, Consulting and Information Technology sectors, across over thirty countries in Africa and the Middle East.
When and how did Teleschools Digital Education System come into existence?
Teleschools was set up in the year 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was in response to the realization that our education system was not equipped to handle a situation in which the children are unable to physically report in their schools. Put simply, we do not have a robust and comprehensive virtual learning system embedded in our education sector. Even after the government announced reopening of schools for virtual learning, more than half of the schoolchildren were still running about in the streets and playing football during the day. We found out later that only 30% of Nigerian households have access to broadband Internet required for the digital learning formats available in this part of the world. We decided then to develop a digital learning system that would be accessible to all Nigerian children of schooling age, regardless of their socioeconomic status, physical location or access to infrastructure.
What would you say Teleschools has accomplished since 2020?
In October 2020, we piloted a satellite TV channel for schoolchildren to receive full daily schedule of lessons via a Digital TV box installed in their homes. We met with then Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Adefisayo, who commended our efforts and expressed a readiness to work with Teleschools. The lockdown was lifted shortly afterwards and our attention shifted to in-school digital learning. By late 2022, we had that solution in hand too. In the last quarter of 2023, we piloted Teleschools Digital Library in selected schools in Lagos and Abuja and it received very positive reviews from students, teachers and school owners. We spent 2024 going round Nigeria, talking to schools and States’ Ministries of Education. Now, in 2025, we will begin deployment of Teleschools Digital Library in schools all over Nigeria.
What would you say Teleschools has accomplished since 2020?
In October 2020, we piloted a satellite TV channel for schoolchildren to receive full daily schedule of lessons via a Digital TV box installed in their homes. We met with then Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Adefisayo, who commended our efforts and expressed a readiness to work with Teleschools. The lockdown was lifted shortly afterwards and our attention shifted to in-school digital learning. By late 2022, we had that solution in hand too. In the last quarter of 2023, we piloted Teleschools Digital Library in selected schools in Lagos and Abuja and it received very positive reviews from students, teachers and school owners. We spent 2024 going round Nigeria, talking to schools and States’ Ministries of Education. Now, in 2025, we will begin deployment of Teleschools Digital Library in schools all over Nigeria.
What is Teleschools Digital Library and what is it going to achieve?
Teleschools Digital Library is a non-Internet based Digital Learning service for schools that will ensure that all students have access to digital learning all year round, without the very prohibitive costs usually associated with such services. It employs local Wi-Fi technology deployed within the school to give students access to a digital library, for all Secondary School classes. It provides Video lessons, Practice exercises, Timed and scored tests and recommended textbooks covering all Nigerian curriculum subjects and topics. It also provides subjects and topics under the British curriculum, required for IGCSE exams as well as Life skills content for co-curricular learning and recreation. Teleschools Digital Library ensures that students across Nigeria’s wide socioeconomic strata have access to same high quality education content, beyond the physical classroom tutoring they receive. It enhances students’ ability to seek out knowledge and information, based on their passion and interests. Additionally, it introduces students to a boundless world of learning beyond the physical walls of their school. Finally, the digital devices through which the students access the Digital Library enables them to collaborate virtually thereby creating the foundation for virtual or remote learning whenever the student is unable to come to school physically. Teleschools Digital Library requires an annual fee per student for hardware and software deployment in their school and to give them access to the library.
Why is it important for schools and governments to deploy digital learning?
The easiest answer is that without digital learning, there is no way that we can ever hope to close the widening gap in the quality of education received in schools across the country. The reality we all should embrace now is that the brick and mortar school system can no longer cope with the education sector’s demands. We do not have enough physical classrooms, teachers, textbooks or funds to guarantee every schoolchild a fair chance at self-actualization for a decent life. It is also impossible to employ traditional education solutions to address the growing problem of out of school children, which has now ballooned to over twenty million children across Nigeria. Digital learning enables the reapplication of the same resources to millions of children, at a fraction of the cost of the physical equivalent. Also equally important is the fact that Digital learning enables us to address those who cannot make it to a physical school environment due to their location or their lifestyle challenges. They can be engaged by taking learning to them and empowering them to acquire an education that guarantees their future, even as they contribute to their family and community livelihood.
It is also important to look back at the recent experience with COVID-19 to realize the potent danger of continuing to expand our brick and mortar education infrastructure without a meaningful alternative in the event of a restriction in movement. Today, we have many other factors threatening the ability of our schoolchildren to gather physically for their daily classes and other academic activities. Among these are insurgency attacks, natural disasters, heavy adverse weather, ethnic or religious unrest and others. We cannot expect schoolchildren to sit at home or play away whenever they cannot go to school, thereby losing days, weeks, months and even years of their crucial education program due to factors outside of their concern and control. The sad outcome of the current inertia to address this problem is evident in Northwest Nigeria, where the ongoing insurgency crisis has kept many children out of school for more than fifteen years. Even when the crisis is over, it is not clear how soon the government will be able to restore the facilities and resources needed for the affected children to resume their education.
What credentials does Teleschools possess to address the problems in Nigeria’s Education sector which you have outlined?
We took the time to understand the root causes of the Nigerian Education sector’s problems and we were able to come up with tailored digital solutions to address these causes comprehensively. At the very root of the problems is the issue of cost of broadband Internet Access, which is required for the video and other bandwidth heavy interactive content requirements of Digital Learning. This singular problem is the driver behind the 30% penetration of digital learning among Nigerian households. It is also the reason only the highest fee paying private schools can afford to deploy Internet-based digital learning services. We have developed alternative technology formats to avoid engaging the cost of Internet access. Teleschools Digital Learning system is Satellite connectivity based. This is because Satellite connectivity, though very expensive to establish, presents remarkable economies of scale due to its multicast technology. A single satellite beam will serve millions of children over a wide geographical footprint and can therefore be reduced to a manageable cost per user. This is unlike Internet access which has a unicast model that multiplies its cost according to the number of users involved. Even when you force users to share Internet access, there is a limit to how much money you can save before the service quality drops below acceptable levels.
Teleschools’ team comprises highly experienced individuals with diverse skills and competencies, including IT, computer, mechanical and chemical engineers, business developers, educationists, accountants, economists, cinematographers, fashion designers and customer service experts. We are able to deliver a versatile Digital learning platform that addresses various types of schools with services that best meet their needs. Teleschools team members are seasoned entrepreneurs who have individually designed, developed and deployed technology systems in diverse fields and sectors worldwide to enhance operations, business results and profits. This knowledge and skills are reflected in the design of Teleschools Digital Library, which is for in-school digital learning, and in Teleschools Virtual Education System, which addresses out of school children. These services are designed to help school owners and governments minimize their costs while still achieving top notch academic performance across their broad spectrum of schools and students. Our partners are multinational and global players in their fields. They have deployed digital technology services in many countries, with superlative results. They include a world class Satellite Connectivity Operator and Digital Broadcast Management Company; also a global Mobile Telecommunication company and top tier banks in Nigeria. They have been involved in the education sector around the world for decades and they have major competence in financing, delivering and supporting large scale education projects. Teleschools is not just interested in delivering another commercial Learning Management System (LMS) that will enhance the academic performance of a few students who can afford to buy the software. We are a Digital Learning chassis for all schools as well as for all Nigerian children of schooling age who are currently out of school. We are deploying a solution to cater for 41 million children in Primary and Secondary Schools and for 20 million children of basic schooling age who are not in school across Nigeria. Teleschools Digital Learning services will redefine Nigeria’s education sector the way digital mobile telecommunication has redefined life in Nigeria.
Teleschools Digital Library is built on a digital learning platform that already serves the education sector in India, a nation of almost 1.5 billion people and a developing economy just like Nigeria. The platform is also successfully deployed in schools in South Africa which is the most advanced economy on the African continent and which also has a broad socioeconomic strata and high diversity of schools, similar to Nigeria. We are therefore prepared to deal with the high population, a wide range of economic variations and significant gaps in understanding and readiness for adoption of digital technology.
Who are you speaking to in the Education Sector and what has been their response so far?
We are starting with Secondary schools across Nigeria. We have engaged most of the major schools associations, including NAPPS, AISEN, APEN and AFED. Through them we have engaged thousands of private school owners and decision makers. We are also engaging the State Ministries of Education to give us access to the public schools. Their response has been very positive and the reception very cordial. We are advocating for a faster pace of engagement to enable prompt deployment of Teleschools Digital Library in our schools. This is to forestall another occurrence of a situation in which our children would be forced to lose access to learning if they are unable to go to school physically.
What is the contribution of Teleschools Digital Library towards resolving the Education sector challenges such as the poor performance in the last UTME examinations by JAMB in April 2025?
Thankfully, we know now that there was a glitch that affected about 15% of the 1.9 million schoolchildren who sat for the last UTME exams. We are happy that JAMB is making plans to re-administer the exams for the affected students. However, we know that more than half of the students who took the UTME exams scored below 200. This means the issue of poor performance goes beyond the technical glitch to a more serious problem of the dearth of good quality teachers and materials in our schools. The broad-scale deployment of Teleschools Digital Library across all our schools will help to address this shortage and will significantly enhance the performance of students in their local school exams as well as in major exams like the UTME.
______________ Mr. Olanrewaju Oke has over 32 years of marketing & sales and executive management experience, including over 10 years with Procter & Gamble Europe Middle East & Africa. He has held senior and C-level executive responsibilities in nine different countries across Africa and in the Middle East. While stationed in the Middle East as a Regional International Manager, he led a $200 million global brand business across all six GCC markets – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar – including operations in three markets. In Sub-Saharan Africa, he was Group Chief Commercial Officer for a Broadband Communications company which provided services across thirteen countries and later Chief Operating Officer for the fastest growing Media and Entertainment Group of companies. He was recently Group Chief Operating Officer & Chief Commercial Officer for SecureID Ltd, Africa’s leading digital payment product and solutions provider, to corporate customers in 21 countries across Africa. He is Co-founder of Uplifting Media and Entertainment Limited (UpMedia), a digital communications solutions company that specializes in multi-technology driven telecommunications solutions that improve quality of life for all, especially the digitally excluded. He is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Teleschools Digital Education System Limited, a business focused on delivering digital learning access to all Nigerian children of school age. Mr. Oke is also a seasoned trainer with over 27 years of experience delivering functional and general training to blue chip corporate organizations globally. He has been both faculty and administrator at various corporate training institutions. He was a prize winning faculty member of the Procter and Gamble Marketing University where he delivered trainings in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He set up Elbeo Academy which offers over twenty training courses across various skill areas and also designs customized courses to address unique training needs of corporate organizations. He has also facilitated executive management and board level strategy sessions for corporate organizations across Nigeria. He is an ordained Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) which has over 50,000 branches in 198 countries. He is a Senior Coordinator and faculty of several of the Ministry’s Advanced Training schools including the School of Disciples (SOD) and the Redeemers International Leadership Academy (RILA), the Leadership training arm of the mission for last thirty years, and a degree awarding institution up to Masters Level. He is Director of RILA’s Special Programs School which offers customized training for mastery and expertise at all levels of leadership. He is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Realty Point Limited and Chairman of the Governance & Nomination Committee. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of Audeo Clothing. Mr. Oke holds a Bachelor of Science (honours) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Economic Principles from the University of London and joint Post-Graduate Diplomas in Theology and Leadership Studies from the Redeemers International Leadership Academy (RILA), Ikoyi, Nigeria. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD) in Nigeria and has been awarded fellowships of the Chartered Institute of Marketing United Kingdom, Institute of Management Consultants in Nigeria and Institute of Strategic Management in the United Kingdom. He is married with children. SOCIAL MEDIA YouTube: @TeleschoolsDigitalEducationSys Facebook: @teleschools.education Instagram: @teleschoolsdigital EMAIL enquiries@teleschools.education support@teleschools.education PHONE 08098354318; 07035277387; 09099177174 WEBSITE www.teleschools.education
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