Case Study | Alimosho Senior Grammar School

How Leadership for Change can build confidence and empathy in low-resource classrooms

Key learnings

Alimosho Senior Grammar School, a co-educational secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria, serves around 2,000 students from diverse backgrounds without charging fees. The school faces significant infrastructural challenges: large classes of up to 80-90 students, limited teaching equipment and unreliable electricity. Despite these hurdles, Alimosho has achieved remarkable outcomes through its engagement with Topical Talk.

The school has participated in Topical Talk initiatives since 2022 and was among the first cohort of Leadership for Change schools this academic year. One of its student teams won the prestigious Leadership for Change Prize 2024. Judges praised their “passionate video pitch to alleviate period poverty and set up a health station for girls on the school compound,” showing a powerful application of learning to real-world issues.

The Leadership for Change curriculum has had a transformative effect on students. Students F, B, and E, who won the prize, described significant shifts in their confidence and aspirations. E said, “I feel good about the future. I don’t feel nervous. One dream when I grow up is that I want to be a politician, so Topical Talk has helped me a lot. For example this project – being able to solve a problem in my school – will help when I become a president or governor of a state.” B reflected on a personal transformation: “Before Topical Talk, I wanted to be a lawyer but I was scared because I was very shy… But after the Leadership for Change 2024 project, I became so confident in myself and I believed in myself and my ideas.”

Topical Talk also fostered collaboration and respect for diverse perspectives. B explained, “I learned that a problem can’t be solved alone by one person… But when you have teamwork, like having your friends to support you, you’ll be successful in it and that’s why teamwork is the best.” Students developed the ability to value differing opinions: “We learned how to respect others’ opinions. Other people have different ideas and in Topical Talk we can’t leave others’ ideas aside,” B said. E added, “Because of Topical Talk it has helped me learn that people’s opinion matters… Whatever someone says, don’t discourage the person – try to research and help the person understand more about it.”

The programme also inspired curiosity beyond the classroom. F recalled how a Headline lesson about women footballers spurred independent research: “Like the Topical Talk about female footballers – they are paid less than males… When I saw that, I began to research more.”

Data from the Leadership for Change Prize curriculum supports these qualitative insights. Students showed significant progress across all skill areas, particularly listening and problem-solving. 

Gbémiga Afọlábí Bánkọ́lé, the teacher and champion of Topical Talk at Alimosho, reflected on the impact: “They absolutely love the project! The thing that has made me the proudest is these students learning to respect other people’s opinions. That’s what Topical Talk has given them – the ability to critically think, solve problems, and just generally respect other people’s opinion.”