Dr. Mary Adebayo Oluwaseun is the winner of the Overall Best Teacher award for 2026 at the Federal Government’s President’s Teachers’ and Schools’ Excellence Awards. In this interview with THE WHISTLER’s CHIKA MEFOR-NWACHUKWU , the 53-year-old mother of three and a teacher at Nawair-Ud-Deen Grammar School, Abeokuta, Ogun State, shares her inspiring journey from wanting to be a medical doctor to becoming the nation’s best teacher, and how she now uses AI to make learning come alive.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A TEACHER?
I got into teaching in 1990 when I completed my Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programme at Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta. But I started with private school. It was in 1999 that I joined the civil service; Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Ogun State.
MANY PEOPLE ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM TEACHING. What Made You DECIDE YOU WANTED TO BE A TEACHER?
I didn’t want to become a teacher by will. I was also running away from teaching as many other were running. I didn’t even want to be one because my father happened to be a teacher.
Since my primary school days, I was helping him to writing lesson notes because he was using it to teach me to have good handwriting. Whether I liked it or not, I must sit down to help him write his lesson notes.
My father taught in our community school. But the way teachers were treated while I was in primary school, I didn’t like it. Sometimes, when my father had beaten his students in class because they did not perform well, after we got to the playground, they would abuse me. I would be the one that would receive the feedback of my father’s treatment.
So I didn’t imagine my children passing through that stress again. That was the first reason I didn’t want to go into teaching.
Apart from that, I love medicine. When I see doctors in their uniforms attending to lives in hospitals, I want to be there. If you asked me in my secondary school days what I wanted to do, I would say medicine.
I attempted several times to get admission. One of my sisters said, instead of sitting at home, I should go to Teacher’s college. She said when I am done, at least you have something doing. With the little you get from teaching, you can sponsor yourself to go into whichever course you want. So I took the advice and that was how I came to Abeokuta for my NCE.
When I came to Abeokuta, I joined Water Corporation. I was working with them. I gathered some money to get the form for admission.
I had already applied for Science Laboratory Technology at FUNAAB. I didn’t know my admission letter had been sent home. My mother collected it. She didn’t open it. She just kept it. By the time I got back home, the admission year had already closed.
When I went back to Abeokuta, I went to Isale-Igbehin, that was where we had University of Agriculture then. I went to check the list on the board and saw my name. I tried to see if I could still come in, but when I saw the payment, N10,000. Who would give me N10,000? My pay at Water Corporation was N300 per month. I just had to let it go.
And that was how I went for NCE.
It was when I got into the school and started the training that I began to develop interest. The motto we have in my school then – “We will mould you to be able to build others and build nations.” The thing kept ringing in my mind. “You will mould me that I will be able to build a nation.”
Before I finished the three-year programme, I already had passion for teaching, especially little children. Then, teacher salary was N1,300 around 1996 when I finished. Some private schools paid N2,000.
So, I went to private school. I taught in about five or six private schools before I got employment in government on July 23rd, 1999.
Since then, I’ve not regretted teaching. I’ve been enjoying it. Working with the children… when you start with them, you will think they don’t know anything, and within two, three weeks or a month of working with them, you see the growth. You see the difference. That brings me joy.
WHAT IS THAT ONE MOMENT THAT MADE YOU PROUD TO BE A TEACHER?
Actually, at many points in time, the aspect I love most – I am a science teacher. I love when somebody is teaching me and I can see what they are teaching come alive.
All glory to God, that honour goes to one of my teachers. He is late now. Mr. Tilola, of blessed memory. He was my Biology teacher.
When he was to teach us titration, he was taking Biology and Chemistry together because nobody could take Chemistry. He said all the reagents in the lab, he was not sure of their contents again because all the labels were gone. So he would improvise and make sure we were able to do titration.
He distributed work to us in groups. Some groups collected lime. We were asked to get lime, squeeze it, sieve it and bring the juice to school. Some were asked to look for wood ash, dissolve it in water, sieve it and bring the water. We have hibiscus flower in the school.
He asked us to get plenty of hibiscus flowers from around the school and from elites in the community. We gathered everything and took it to the lab. He said we should pour the hibiscus flower in water and begin to pound. After pounding, we added water to get the fluid out. We used that solution as our methyl orange indicator. The lime was our acid, and the wood ash water was our base.
He said, put this one in the burette, put this one in the pipette. We titrated and we got the correct end point. I said, wow. These are teachers at work.
So when I got into the work proper, I said if somebody could go this far to improvise, I will also, as God gives me opportunity, improvise and make my class alive. I go the extra mile. Anything I can get as instructional material to make the topic come alive, I will get it. I don’t just want them to pass exam, I want them to master it and be able to relate it to what is happening in the environment.
By the grace of God, I teach Agricultural Science. I love farming. I take my students to the farm. Any topic I want to teach, I make sure I relate it to what is happening in the environment.
I HEAR YOU ARE NOW USING AI IN CLASS?
Presently, I am working on a website where I want to develop a kind of simulation where students can learn Chemistry in their mother tongue. The work is in progress. It is one of the things I uploaded for my award.
I went for a training organised by a foundation on digital literacy for teachers. It was a great exposure to me. They taught us how we can use AI and other tools to make our class lively.
Immediately I am trained, I come back to class to use whatever I’ve been taught. I give my students the scheme of work ahead of class. So I am learning together with my students.
With AI, I teach them ethical use and responsible use.
Some parents were arguing, “You want to spoil them, they will not be able to think.” I called one of the parents one day, I said, sit down. “Mummy, when you were growing up, what were you using to grind pepper?” She said grinding stone. I asked her how easy it was. She said it was not easy. I said what do you use now? She said blender.
I said, if you will not use AI, that means you will not use blender again. Go back to grinding stone. Technology has brought advancement helping women in the house. How long did you use your hands to wash clothes? Why did you embrace washing machine? Because it makes work less cumbersome.
Yes, AI has shortcomings, but there is nothing in life that has good things that will not have bad. Let’s teach students to run away from the bad, but embrace the good aspect to complement what the teacher is teaching.
