To reach more underserved communities, Ashoka Africa has expanded its Changemaking Education (CTEACH) Network with 102 graduates and 400 new inductees in Lagos.  
 
 CTEACH, a year-long teacher training programme developed with the generous support of Swiss Haute Horlogerie manufacturer, Audemars Piguet, is part of the global Time for Change initiative implemented by First Book, Ashoka and Teach for All supporting young people in under-resourced communities to become changemakers. 
  
In Nigeria, CTEACH positions teachers as the key driver for nurturing changemaking among their students, equipping them to cultivate empathy, leadership, and creative problem-solving to lead solutions in their schools and communities.
  
Launched in September 2023, CTEACH rapidly evolved from concept to nationwide activation fuelled by Audemars Piguet’s catalytic support. Since then, the programme has built a growing ecosystem of educators embedding the Everyone a Changemaker (EACH) vision in schools in Lagos State, unlocking student leadership and driving a systemic shift in Nigeria’s education sector from traditional teaching models to student-led, community-rooted innovation. 
  
At the weekend, the CTEACH Graduation and Induction Ceremony in Lagos celebrated two major programme milestones; graduation of Cohort 2, with over 100 teachers who internalise, integrate and implement changemaking in their classrooms and communities as well as induction of Cohort 3, welcoming 400 new teachers who begin their transformative journeys as changemaker educators.
  
This year’s CTEACH theme, ‘Internalise, Integrate, Implement Changemaking’,reinforces the path teachers take as they embrace changemaking as a personal philosophy, embed it into classroom culture, and implement it as a driver of community-wide change. 

The programme empowers teachers as “Changemaker Makers,” fostering student agency and a culture of innovation. Lagos now serves as the blueprint for CTEACH’s expansion across Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa,” says  Angelou Ezeilo, Co-President and CTEACH Director. 
 
Ezeilo said the 102 Junior Secondary teachers from six districts across Lagos State have embarked on a change-making journey and have been equipped with tools and mindset shifts so that they can instill in themselves and in their students the power of change-making.

She stressed that their students can now identify problems, have conscious empathy for the good of all, understand new leadership, not just a hierarchical top-down, but the power of working in teams and practicing change-making. 
  
A participant, Dr Peace Sule, a recipient of the 2025 African Union (AU) Continental Teachers’ Award for the West Africa region, extolled Ashoka for the training in the four pillars of changemaking; empathy, shared leadership, teamwork and taking action. 
  
Bankole Igbekele, a dedicated Mathematics and Science teacher with over six years of experience at Ojokoro Junior High School, thanked Ashoka for the opportunity to upscale his teaching skills in four pillars of change making, talking about empathy, teamwork, change making leadership and change making action.  He urged the government to avoid politicising education with a reference to the new curriculum.