FoundaMENTA

Our teacher-led innovation is driving measurable, scalable change in foundational learning INSTRUCTION for children in underserved communities.

The Global Learning Crisis and the Teaching Challenge

The world is facing a profound education crisis. Great teaching changes lives, and every child deserves a quality education regardless of where they are born. Yet over 190 million children are on track to leave school unable to read, write, or do basic math. In Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 90% of children between the ages of 6 and 14 will not meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and math. Most critically, two-thirds of these children are already in school, revealing that the problem isn’t access; it is the quality and effectiveness of teaching, coaching, and mentoring they receive.

The Promise: Technology-facilitated and Holistic Teacher Support

In low-resource settings, many teachers lack training and sufficient teaching materials, making it hard to balance standard curricula with the unique needs of their students. Limited resources, tools, and professional support make it even more difficult to provide effective, personalized learning.

To close this gap, education systems must shift from ad-hoc, theory-heavy workshops to evidence-based support that enables access to continuous teacher professional development, focusing on adaptive pedagogy, contextualized learning materials that consider language and socio-cultural realities and supportive systems for assessment, mentoring, and resources that enable teachers to balance rigour and relevance.

At AREAi, we believe that the key to improving foundational literacy and numeracy lies in raising teaching quality and equipping teachers with the practical, ongoing support they need to make effective instructional decisions every day. Our focus is on how we can leverage low-cost technologies to facilitate this.

The FOUNDAMENTA Program: From Good to Great Teaching

FLN instruction is not simply about content delivery; it is a complex negotiation between learner needs, pedagogical capacity, language, assessment pressures, and contextual constraints. FoundaMENTA seeks to tackle the global problem of children in low-resource and marginalized communities falling behind in foundational literacy and numeracy due to misaligned instruction, insufficiently trained teachers, and limited access to learner-centred resources, leaving them unable to acquire the essential skills needed for lifelong learning and meaningful participation in society. The program equips teachers and community facilitators in both formal and non-formal settings, especially those serving marginalized, out-of-school, and refugee learners across Africa, with the tools and strategies needed to deliver effective foundational literacy and numeracy instruction.

Our response: A Systemic Solution to Systemic Challenges

Our solution addresses the systemic gaps at every level, from classroom instruction to ministry-level accountability:

AI-powered and Tailored Instructional Support

Offline-enabled access to Teaching Resources

Scaffolded Coaching and Peer Mentoring

Our Mission: Empowering Teachers, Transforming Learning

Over the past four years, AREAi’s FoundaMENTA program has equipped youth educators and community-based facilitators in Nigeria and the DRC with the skills and knowledge to deliver high-quality, learner-centred foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) instruction.

Teacher Capacity: 250 National Youth Service Corps fellows in Nigeria and over 200 facilitators in the DRC have been trained in evidence-based strategies, enabling them to design engaging lessons and assess learners effectively.
Learner Impact: More than 625 trained teachers have reached over 22,000 children across IDP camps and marginalized communities, improving literacy and numeracy outcomes within weeks.
Teacher Empowerment: Facilitators report greater confidence, pedagogical creativity, and leadership skills, allowing them to mentor peers and adapt lessons for multilingual and out-of-school learners.
Scalability & Sustainability: The community-based model ensures replication across regions, with plans to train 1,000,000 educators and facilitators in northern Nigeria by 2036.

Through FoundaMENTA, teacher-led innovation is driving measurable, scalable change in foundational learning instruction for children in underserved communities.

Click the link below to join our FoundaMENTA Teachers’ Community of Practice (CoP) to improve instructional delivery skills in foundational literacy and numeracy, and also contribute to the advancement of educational outcomes.