Adeola Akinsulure: Biology Teacher and Global Teacher Prize Top 10 Finalist

Recognised by Nkuzify as Leading Teacher and Educator of the Year.

World Teachers' Day
Happy Teachers' Day from all of us at Nkuzify.

In a single year, the share of students passing Biology at one state school in Ikeja climbed from 45.3 per cent to 99 per cent.

The classes were crowded and the electricity was unreliable. Most of the families were low-income. What changed was the teacher.

Her name is Adeola Akinsulure, and she teaches Biology at Omole Senior Grammar School.

A teaching model she built herself

Instead of waiting for better equipment, she designed her own method, called SOAR+T. It brings together edutainment, technology, gamified assessments, mentorship and real-world application, so a lesson on living things becomes something the students take part in.

From one classroom to thousands

She started Biology Comes Alive, a free digital learning community that reaches thousands of students and teachers across West Africa. She has trained over 30,000 teachers in her low-cost methods.

Recognition from the wider world

Her students have won recognition at district, state, national and global levels. In 2023 she led an international team to victory in the New York Academy of Sciences Global STEM Challenge. She is a Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement awardee, and her school was named Best School in the District from 2023 to 2025 and one of the top 50 schools in West Africa in 2024.

In 2026 she was named among the top 10 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize, chosen from more than 5,000 applicants in 139 countries.

What she would do with the prize

She has said that if she won, she would set up sustainability hubs, STEM leadership bootcamps for girls and low-cost mobile science labs, and train over 50,000 teachers. Every one of those plans reaches beyond her own classroom.

Why Nkuzify celebrates her

A teacher who trains thousands of other teachers multiplies her work many times over. That is the idea behind Nkuzify. When one good teacher shares her method freely, a whole country of classrooms improves.

Read more in Nigeria's Education Heroes: Pioneers, Prizewinners and Unsung Teachers, or make a free Thank You card for your own teacher.