About
Abba Suraj
I am an education technologist and mathematics education specialist, working at the intersection of learning science, teacher professional development, and the engineering required to deliver educational change at scale — specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa.
My background is in electrical engineering and information technology. I came to education through practice, not through the academy — and that has shaped how I approach the field. I am as interested in the plumbing as the theory: what actually reaches teachers, what actually changes classrooms, what evidence we have for any of it.
Over the past decade, I have worked on teacher professional development programmes, curriculum design projects, and EdTech deployments across Nigeria. Through that work, I have developed a deep conviction that mathematics teacher development — done well, at scale, with a clear theory of change and proper evaluation — is one of the highest-leverage investments any education system can make.
NumeracyHQ is the public face of that conviction. It is a platform for the ideas, evidence, and tools I find most useful — and a way of building a community of mathematics educators who are serious about improving their practice.
“The bottleneck is not the curriculum. It is not the textbook. It is not the technology. It is almost always the teacher — and the systems that support them.”
My work spans programme design, monitoring and evaluation, EdTech strategy, and content production. I write, make mathematical animations, consult for organisations working in African education systems, and think publicly about the evidence base for mathematics education and teacher development.
Mission
Every child in Africa deserves a mathematics teacher who knows their subject and knows how to teach it. The question is how to get there — at scale, with evidence, and sustainably.
Areas of expertise
- Mathematics teacher professional development — design, facilitation, and evaluation
- Curriculum alignment and instructional materials development
- Learning science and cognitive science applied to mathematics education
- Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks for education programmes
- EdTech strategy, architecture, and independent evidence-based review
- Numeracy and early mathematics — assessment, pedagogy, and intervention design
- Programme design for large-scale and donor-funded education initiatives
- Mathematical visualization and animated content production (Manim)
Why this work matters
Mathematics is a gatekeeper subject. Students who do not develop strong numeracy and mathematical reasoning by the end of primary school are systematically disadvantaged — in secondary school, in higher education, and in economic participation.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the data is stark. PASEC, SACMEQ, and national assessments consistently show that significant proportions of students finish primary school without functional numeracy. This is not primarily a question of student ability — it is a question of instructional quality.
Teacher professional development is not the only solution, but it is the highest-multiplier intervention at scale. A well-designed PD programme — grounded in learning science, delivered with fidelity, and evaluated honestly — reaches every student that teacher will ever teach.
The challenge is designing and delivering PD that actually transfers to classroom practice. Most does not. Getting that right — at scale, in resource-constrained contexts, with technology as an enabler rather than a distraction — is the central problem I work on.
Follow the work
The NumeracyHQ newsletter goes out every two weeks — one teaching idea, one piece of evidence, one resource. Free.