Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is a Nigerian education policy expert, researcher, development specialist and education reform advocate whose work focuses on improving learning outcomes through evidence, public-private collaboration and stronger education systems. She is best known as the founder of The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre, an organisation that works across research, policy, programme design, implementation and evaluation in education.
Adefeso-Olateju, widely known professionally as Dr. Mo Adefeso-Olateju, has worked at the intersection of government, civil society, research institutions and the private sector. Her career has included policy development, monitoring and evaluation, foundational learning, education innovation and the design of partnerships intended to improve educational outcomes in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. She is also a Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education, where she leads work connected to education systems transformation.
Her career is particularly relevant to students and researchers interested in Nigerian education because she represents a generation of education specialists working beyond conventional classroom teaching. Rather than building her career primarily as a university lecturer, she has combined advanced academic training with policy research, programme implementation, institutional leadership and advisory work.
Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju’s Full Name and Age
Her full professional name is Modupe Adefeso-Olateju. She is also commonly identified as Modupe (Mo) Adefeso-Olateju or Dr. Mo Olateju.
Reliable institutional biographies establish her Nigerian nationality and professional background, but they do not provide a verified date of birth or age. For that reason, an exact age or birth date should not be presented as established fact.
Her professional profile shows a career that has developed over several decades, beginning with early work in banking and consulting before moving into education policy, research and development. Her academic record indicates that she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1999, master’s degree in 2006 and PhD in 2013.
Where Is Modupe Adefeso-Olateju From?
Adefeso-Olateju is Nigerian and has strong professional ties to Lagos, where The Education Partnership Centre is based. A 2022 profile of her life reported that she and her five siblings were raised in Lagos. The same profile described her parents’ influence on her eventual interest in education, noting that her father worked in catering and her mother, after a nursing career, established a school.
Her professional biography also identifies Yoruba among the languages she speaks, alongside English.
Although family background is not the central focus of her public career, the educational environment created by her mother is notable because it helps explain her longstanding interest in children’s learning and education systems.
Educational Background
Adefeso-Olateju began her university education at the University of Lagos, where she earned a Bachelor of Education in Educational Administration in 1999. Her academic path subsequently became increasingly focused on education policy and international development.
She later attended the Institute of Education at University College London, now part of University College London, where she obtained a Master’s degree in Education and International Development in 2006, graduating with distinction.
She returned to the same institution for doctoral study and completed a PhD in Education and International Development in 2013 as an IOE Centenary Scholar for Africa. Her doctoral research examined public-private partnerships and the effectiveness of public and private schools in Nigeria, reflecting the policy questions that would later become central to her professional work.
Her academic training therefore combines educational administration, international development, education research and policy analysis.
How Did Modupe Adefeso-Olateju Begin Her Career?
Adefeso-Olateju did not begin her career exclusively within the education sector. Her early professional experience included banking, management consulting, youth development and programme management.
According to her Brookings profile, she worked as a management consultant and analyst at Accenture and later served as a regional vice president at Junior Achievement of Nigeria. She also worked with Youth Dynamix and was involved in monitoring, evaluation and learning work under education sector support programmes supported by UK development assistance.
This combination of private-sector and development-sector experience became important to her later approach to education. Instead of treating education policy as the responsibility of government alone, she developed a professional focus on how government agencies, researchers, businesses, civil society organisations and communities can work together to improve learning.
What Is The Education Partnership Centre?
Adefeso-Olateju is the founder of The Education Partnership Centre, or TEP Centre, a Nigerian organisation focused on strengthening education through partnerships, research, programme development and evidence.
The organisation’s work covers areas including education research, programme design, implementation support, monitoring and evaluation, capacity development and education innovation. TEP Centre’s current team page identifies Adefeso-Olateju as its founder.
Her leadership of TEP Centre has made her an important voice in discussions about how Nigeria can move from education policies that exist on paper to programmes that produce measurable improvements in children’s learning.
The organisation has also produced research and reports on education innovation, learning outcomes, teacher development, education policy and the use of evidence in decision-making. Its publication record includes research on the relationship between socioeconomic background and learning outcomes in Nigeria as well as reports on scaling education innovation.
LEARNigeria and Foundational Learning
One of Adefeso-Olateju’s most significant education initiatives is LEARNigeria, a citizen-led assessment and advocacy programme focused on foundational learning.
Through TEP Centre, she helped establish LEARNigeria as a mechanism for gathering evidence about children’s literacy and numeracy abilities and using that evidence to encourage policy action. The Asia Global Institute describes the programme as having generated learning-outcome evidence involving tens of thousands of Nigerian children and as combining assessment, advocacy and accelerated learning interventions.
The programme reflects one of the central themes of Adefeso-Olateju’s career: education reform needs reliable evidence about what children are actually learning.
This approach is especially important in Nigeria because school enrolment alone does not necessarily demonstrate educational success. A child may be attending school while still struggling to read, understand text or perform basic mathematical operations. Her work has therefore placed considerable attention on foundational literacy and numeracy.
Her Work on Education Policy
Adefeso-Olateju has participated in several national education policy processes.
She contributed to Nigeria’s 2011 to 2015 Education Strategic Plan and later served on the technical team involved in developing Nigeria’s medium and long-term national strategic plans. Her documented responsibilities included work on education and human capital development.
In 2020, she was involved in the technical working process for Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plans. Her work also included contributions to longer-term national planning, including Nigeria Agenda 2050.
In 2023, she was appointed to a three-member Presidential Policy Advisory Council, where she contributed to the development of education priorities for Nigeria’s newly inaugurated national government.
These roles placed her in a position where research findings and education policy intersected directly with national planning.
Nigerian Education Innovation Summit
Another major initiative associated with Adefeso-Olateju is the Nigerian Education Innovation Summit, known as NEDIS.
The summit was established as a platform for education innovators, policymakers, researchers, development organisations and other stakeholders to examine practical approaches to improving education. TEP Centre records show Adefeso-Olateju participating in the organisation and leadership of NEDIS from its early years.
The initiative reflects her belief that education reform requires more than government policy announcements. It also requires identifying innovations, testing them, learning from evidence and considering how effective approaches can be expanded.
Her Work at Brookings
Adefeso-Olateju is a Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education, where her research interests include education innovation, foundational learning, public-private partnerships and education systems transformation.
At Brookings, she leads the Network for Education Systems Transformation, a network involving organisations from the Global South that examines how education systems can change to develop a broader range of skills among learners.
Her Brookings role has expanded her work beyond Nigeria. It places her within international discussions about how education systems in developing countries can move from isolated programmes toward broader, sustainable reforms.
International Education and Development Work
Adefeso-Olateju has also worked with international organisations and research initiatives concerned with evidence and education policy.
She has served as a commissioner on the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges at McMaster University and has provided technical advice or participated in advisory structures connected with organisations including UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report, Education Cannot Wait, the Global Partnership for Education and the Global Schools Forum.
She is also a Fellow of the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong. Her fellowship research examined what African education policy systems could learn from Asian approaches to incorporating innovation into policy planning.
Board and Leadership Roles
Adefeso-Olateju has held governance responsibilities with several organisations working in education and human development.
As of 2026, the Malala Fund identifies her as Chair of its U.S. Board. The organisation’s profile describes her as the founder of TEP Centre and notes her work with the Brookings Institution and LEARNigeria.
Brookings also identifies her as a trustee of Human Capital Africa, Slum2School U.S. and FabAI, as well as a member of the Global Advisory Committee of the Teach For All Global Institute for Shaping a Better Future.
These responsibilities demonstrate the international dimension of her education work, particularly in foundational learning, education systems and the development of human capital.
Awards, Fellowships and Recognition
Adefeso-Olateju has received recognition for her contribution to education policy and development.
She was selected as an IOE Centenary Scholar for Africa during her doctoral studies at the Institute of Education. She is also a Fellow of the Asia Global Institute and has been described as an Honorary Fellow of Nigeria’s National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration.
In 2014, she was recognised by the Nigerian government as one of the 100 Guardians of Nigeria’s Future, according to her professional biography.
Her recognition has generally been connected to education policy, research, youth development and efforts to strengthen education systems rather than to conventional academic teaching alone.
Research and Publications
Adefeso-Olateju’s research interests include public-private partnerships in education, education innovation, foundational learning, learning outcomes, monitoring and evaluation, and the scaling of effective education interventions.
Her published work through TEP Centre includes research on socioeconomic background and learning outcomes in Nigeria, education innovation, teacher development and citizen-led education assessments.
Her doctoral thesis, titled “Public-Private Partnership and a Critical Inquiry into the Effectiveness of Public and Private Schools in Nigeria,” reflects the central question that has continued throughout her career: how can different sectors work together to improve educational quality and outcomes?
Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju’s Current Work in 2026
As of 2026, Adefeso-Olateju remains active in international education policy and systems transformation. Brookings lists her as a Fellow at the Center for Universal Education, while the TEP Centre continues to identify her as its founder.
She was also listed as a keynote speaker for the 78th OMEP World Assembly and Conference in 2026, where her profile highlighted her work on public-private collaboration, education innovation, systems transformation and skills development.
The TEP Centre’s 2025 impact report, published in 2026, also identifies her as the organisation’s founder and reflects on a decade of work in education transformation in Nigeria.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju
Who is Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju?
Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is a Nigerian education policy expert, researcher and development specialist. She founded The Education Partnership Centre and is a Fellow at Brookings’ Center for Universal Education.
What did Modupe Adefeso-Olateju study?
She earned a Bachelor of Education in Educational Administration from the University of Lagos in 1999, a master’s degree in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education at University College London in 2006, and a PhD in Education and International Development from the same institution in 2013.
What is Modupe Adefeso-Olateju known for?
She is best known for her work in education policy, public-private partnerships, foundational learning, citizen-led assessments, education innovation and education systems transformation.
What is TEP Centre?
The Education Partnership Centre, or TEP Centre, is an education organisation founded by Adefeso-Olateju that works on research, programme design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, capacity development and partnerships aimed at improving education outcomes.
Is Modupe Adefeso-Olateju a professor?
Available authoritative biographies identify her as a PhD-level education policy expert, researcher and development specialist, but they do not identify her as a university professor. Her major professional appointments have been in education policy, research, development and institutional leadership.
Is Modupe Adefeso-Olateju still active in education?
Yes. As of 2026, she is a Fellow at Brookings’ Center for Universal Education, remains associated with TEP Centre as its founder, chairs the U.S. Board of the Malala Fund, and participates in international education systems research and policy discussions.
Conclusion
Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju’s career illustrates how education reform can extend beyond traditional university teaching and government administration. Her work combines academic research with policy development, evidence generation, programme implementation and collaboration among government, civil society, researchers and private organisations.
From founding TEP Centre and developing LEARNigeria to contributing to national education planning and working with Brookings and international education organisations, she has focused much of her career on a practical question: how can evidence be converted into better learning outcomes for children?
That focus has made foundational learning, education innovation and systems transformation central themes of her professional work. Her continuing involvement in Nigerian and international education initiatives in 2026 means that her contribution is not simply a matter of past achievements. She remains an active participant in debates about how education systems can become more effective, equitable and responsive to the needs of learners.
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