FastTrack is an accelerated foundational skills development program that fosters improved literacy and numeracy proficiency levels for refugee children, combining a bilingual instructional model, flexibly structured pedagogy, and an offline “talking pen” assistive technology.
Organization’s Background and Achievements
This project is one of the 2024-2025 WISE Prize for Education finalists.
Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi), founded by Gideon Olanrewaju, emerged from personal experience and a commitment to educational activism. Growing up with limited quality learning opportunities but later accessing excellent education set Olanrewaju on a path of advocacy for improved service delivery within educational systems. His work in educational activism exposed the gaps in the availability and provision of quality technology-enabled learning opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged communities.
FastTrack, AREAi’s flagship program, has demonstrated remarkable growth and impact since its inception. What began as a pilot project with 1,500 children in one Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in 2019 has rapidly expanded over the last four years. Today, FastTrack has reached an impressive 25,000 learners across ten refugee camps in Nigeria. This exponential growth not only highlights the program’s effectiveness but also underscores the pressing need for such innovative educational solutions in refugee contexts.
New Solution: Accelerated Bilingual Learning with Assistive Technology
FastTrack’s innovative approach combines several key elements to create a powerful learning experience for refugee children. At its core, the program utilizes a bilingual instructional model, recognizing the importance of “mother tongue instruction in effective language learning”. This is complemented by a flexibly structured pedagogy that adapts to the unique needs of learners in refugee contexts. A standout feature of FastTrack is its use of an offline “talking pen” assistive technology. This innovative tool bridges the gap between traditional and digital learning, providing interactive audio support even in areas with limited internet connectivity. The program leverages translanguaging, aided by text-to-speech assistive technologies, to promote accelerated and effective acquisition of multilingual literacy abilities and arithmetic/numeracy capabilities.
Potential Impact and Prospects
AREAi has ambitious plans for scaling FastTrack both nationally and regionally over the next five years:
- Creating mechanisms for local refugee-led or community-based educational organizations in Nigeria to replicate their methodology
- Expanding into Francophone and East Africa, particularly DR Congo and Uganda
- Collaborating with national and local government agencies to integrate FastTrack into humanitarian programming
Addressing WISE Prize for Education Challenges
- Artificial Intelligence in Education ☑️
- Teaching of Arabic Language
- Foundational Literacies ☑️
The solution directly addresses these challenges by leveraging technology to enhance foundational literacy and numeracy skills, with a particular focus on refugee children who often face significant educational barriers.