Southern Nigeria isn’t exactly where you’d expect a revolution in education to start. But in the bustling schools of Benin City, a new era may be dawning.
“AI helps us to learn, it can serve as a tutor, it can be anything you want it to be, depending on the prompt you write,” says Omorogbe Uyiosa, known as “Uyi” by his friends, a student from the Edo Boys High School. Uyi’s school was one of the participants in groundbreaking pilot program that integrates generative AI into after-school learning. And the results? Transformative.
The problems Nigerian schools are facing are common in many parts of the world: overcrowded classrooms, too few teachers, scarce resources for personalized education. The six-week intervention, held during the rainy season of 2024, tested generative AI as a virtual tutor for students aged 12–17 to address those issues.
The main focus of the program was improving English language skills, but the project also ventured …