Unlocking Potential: Chess in Slums Africa champions foundational learning with #BorntoLearn 

By Tunde Onakoya, founder of Chess in Slums Africa 

My name is Tunde Onakoya. I am a professional chess player and a national master of chess. I’m also the convener of Chess in Slums Africa, a non-profit organization that uses the game of chess as a framework to give children skills who do not have access to education. We are a strong believer in children’s potential, basing our work on the belief that children can do incredible things when they are given the chance, and the skills to know how. This is why we are joining the #BorntoLearn campaign started by the UNESCO GEM Report to rectify the fact that, in Africa at present, only one in five children can read with understanding and have acquired mathematical literacy. We join the call for all children to be given access to foundational learning. 

 Education for me is the capacity for thought. And a lot of the children we work with in Nigeria are not enabled to think for themselves because they are not in schools. Chess is a medium to teach them skills and enable them to be able to help themselves. Chess is helping them find expression. 

I knew that chess would give them a new identity that other people would respect. Instead of simply looking at a child’s poverty, or clothes, people would respect what that child was able to do. We have seen what children are able to do with chess when they are shown how; if all children had access to foundational learning in school, we would be astounded at what they’re able to do.  

The children we meet with have dreams and ambitions. Some of them want to become doctors or teachers. Some of them want to become lawyers or accountants. But, for them, and for the other 118 million children and youth out of school on the continent, it is very unlikely that these dreams will become a reality because of their present circumstances.  

For the longest time, many of them have been deprived of opportunities. #BornToLearn calls on governments to imagine what could be achieved if all children were to be given access to an education; access to skills that are relevant to their future. We hope this partnership will help bring the world to these children – to show them that it’s possible to dream beyond the confines of their community.