A charity-run kindergarten and primary school in Epe, Lagos State, Slum2School Green Academy, has been named in the Top 10 shortlists for the World’s Best School Prizes 2026.

The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded by T4 Education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to share the best practices of schools changing lives in their classrooms and far beyond their walls, have been described as the ‘World Cup for Schools,’ as they are the world’s most prestigious education prizes.

Slum2School Green Academy, which is advancing learning for 250 underserved children from eight riverine communities through a first-of-its-kind, climate-smart school with an experiential, inquiry-based learning model that helps students gain up to three years of learning in one school year, has been named in the Top 10 shortlist for the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action.

The winners of the five World’s Best School Prizes – Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, and Supporting Healthy Lives, will be chosen by an expert Judging Academy based on rigorous criteria. The top three finalists and winners will be announced in November.

In addition, all 50 shortlisted schools across the five prizes will also take part in a public vote, which opened last Thursday, to determine the winner of the Community Choice Award.

The winners and shortlisted schools would then be invited to the World Schools Summit in London, on January 16 and 17, 2027, where they will share their best practices, unique expertise and experience with policymakers and leading figures in global education.

Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, Vikas Pota, congratulated Slum2School Green Academy on being shortlisted for the fifth World’s Best School Prizes.

Pota stated that the shortlist has shown that Nigerian schools truly stand among the best in the world.

“Each one of these exemplary schools shortlisted for this global schools prize has, in its own unique way, helped prepare young people for a world that has never seemed so uncertain. It is more important than ever that our schools grow the leaders we’ll need to face massive

challenges from rising conflict and inequality to populism and climate breakdown.

“In their classrooms, every day, these institutions show what works. And governments and schools across the world should learn from their shining examples,” Pota stated.

Slum2School Green Academy, located in one of the most remote water-logged settlements about an hour from land, exists in a place where formal education was, for generations, effectively out of reach.

Children would need to travel long distances by canoe to attend school, a journey that made daily learning impossible. Most never learned to read or write, while families face deep, inter-generational poverty compounded by the absence of clean water, electricity, healthcare, and basic infrastructure.

Realising that a conventional school model would not be viable due to environmental and logistical constraints, the school built a Green Academy using locally sourced natural materials such as bamboo and wood, enabling it to integrate with the environment and withstand local conditions.

Designed as a climate-smart, eco-friendly system that is largely self-sustaining, it is a living ecosystem where students learn in classrooms cooled by natural ventilation, drink clean water harvested on-site, participate in waste management and recycling, and grow food in school gardens.

The school’s pedagogy is built on the reality that most students start with little or no prior exposure to formal learning, with teaching structured around a blend of project-based, play-based, and hands-on learning, which allows students to build literacy and numeracy through experience rather than books.

Lessons are intentionally designed to connect with what learners experience in their day-to-day lives, using visual, physical and experiential approaches. The curriculum deliberately introduces global perspectives through digital tools, storytelling, and guided exploration, giving children the chance to see themselves in a wider world, thereby building their confidence and curiosity.

Students actively engage in the school’s environmental systems, which help them understand concepts like water conservation, renewable energy, and waste management. Classroom-led peer projects, such as building a school garden and converting water hyacinth into usable and marketable products, are teaching them skills they can use beyond the classroom.

Older students are also given the opportunity to mentor younger learners, helping them understand sustainable practices while building their leadership skills.