Creating inclusive instructional design strategies to bridge the educational divide for underserved communities in Nigeria.

Ayodeji, Ayomide Arowolo and Opeifa, Olasunkanmi (2025) Creating inclusive instructional design strategies to bridge the educational divide for underserved communities in Nigeria. GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 22 (3). p. 283. ISSN 2582-4597

Society builds upon basic education as a fundamental right while education becomes a main element for promoting socioeconomic progress. The people who lack access to good education in Nigeria encounter multiple obstacles that interfere with their education opportunity because they have insufficient physical facilities for education and limited digital resources plus persistent inequality issues. Barriers obstructing educational opportunities extend the education gap between marginalized areas and all other learning communities. Several educational interventions lack effectiveness because they do not focus on the individual instructional obstacles which hinder inclusive education practices. The absence of effective instructional approaches makes educational differences worse because students from disadvantaged areas lose their fair education opportunities. Researchers investigate various educational methods which might help reduce the educational gap in Nigeria. The research implemented a dual methodology which integrated survey collection methods with structured interviews for students and teachers and policymakers within five poverty-stricken neighborhoods of Abuja. Assessment of both instructional difficulties and inclusive design methods resulted in descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the gathered data. The research findings identified three main barriers which consisted of inadequate instruction materials (62.5%) as well as restricted digital access (73.8%) and unprepared teachers (56.3%). Findings showed that educational outcomes improve substantially when teachers incorporate interactive teaching strategies together with technology support and cultural pedagogies. It was revealed that instructional design that includes everyone can help Nigeria reduce the gaps between different social classes in education. The study therefore concluded that to deliver equal learning opportunities it is crucial to resolve problems with digital access along with improving teacher training approaches and policy execution procedures. It was recommended among other things that more funding for digital infrastructure alongside programming for teacher development and Universal Design for Learning implementation to enhance both accessibility and engagement.