Stage of Innovation: Prototype (You have a working physical product)

Problem: Due to recruitment fees that are typically 150% of current teacher wages, Nigerian schools struggle to locate suitable teachers. Majority of currently employed teachers are underqualified, lack a good education, and lack access to detailed information about what their students should learn once they are in the classroom, where to find the necessary learning resources, and how to assess students' learning success. Consequently, 70% of Nigerian children aged 10 can't read or do basic maths. Representing more than 25 million children who will lack the foundational skills necessary for further learning undermining national efforts aimed at unlifting future generations from poverty.

Unique Selling Point: The current solutions include recruitment firms that operate primarily by phone and on paper, have limited reach, and charge exorbitant fees to locate competent teachers. Finding the ideal teacher through these firms might take months, costing schools hundreds of instructional hours. When a teacher is hired today, schools lack mentors to provide these teachers with, so they try training these teachers instead, but the costs for trainings through school consultants are high, and since there is no guarantee the school will retain the teacher, the schools resort to superficial fixes like standardised digital lesson plans and notes sold by retail lesson creators, which are less expensive. Schools and teachers buy curriculum materials from these retail vendors, but the lesson plans, notes, and curriculum documents they buy don't tell them what their students should be learning, how to use them in the classroom, and how well the teachers are doing. Teacher HQ is a management platform that improves access to teaching jobs for youths by providing access to teacher vacancies and teacher-to-teacher mentorship. Teacher HQ allows schools and job seekers to sign up to the platform using traditional paper through teacher representatives in rural areas and through SMS code and website in areas with higher cellular coverage. Teachers who sign up by paper get updates either from the principals which signed them up or by scheduled SMS texts. Upon signing up online, Teacher HQ uses artificial intelligence to grade teachers based on a wide variety of factors reflecting the needs of schools and curricula. After an initial proficiency test, teachers are given support based on their achievement level. Employed teachers which need mentorship are connected to expert teachers on the website and teachers looking for teaching jobs are matched in real time to schools looking for quality teaching talent.