Bringing Quality Education to the hand of every Child through digital tools and skills.

• In Event: Trends in capacity building through ICT

Proposal

Global access to education by children and youth remains a challenge. In 2019, a UNESCO report shows that a sixth of this global population was out of school. By the end of 2020 over 2.1 billion children were out of schools following closure of learning institutions. Locally, nationally, globally, digital learning must be accelerated to reach every child irrespective of their location, social status,financial status or whether they are in school or not. The lessons learnt from this experience can lift 258.4 million youth and adolescents , if as a community we can work together and accelerate digital tool inclusion.
Globally, education stakeholders have recognized the critical need for a new way of children learning supported by educators and family members. This demands a new definition of the teacher- student relationship in and out of a four walled classroom, and a strengthened role of parents in their child’s education. During the pandemic, community-based learning groups supported by digital content provided insights. Digital tools and usage can improve learning outcomes AND improve the general learning experience of the learner. The following are some of the ways: 1. Improve the quality of the content learner’s access. 2. Improving how educators interact with learners 3. Improve how educators access learning Instructional core content. 4. Improve the way Parents interact and support their children.
This NGO, working across UG, KE, and TZ, has architected and developed an integrated solution to provide inclusive access to learning, both academic and life skills for youth in marginalized areas post the pandemic. The solution makes use of locally curated Open-Source content and Kolibri, a Learning Management system (LMS) leveraging low-cost digital devices, and an implementation framework supporting gradual skill development to ensure all stakeholders develop skills over time, mastery, and then take lead in peer to peer mentoring of children.
This paper will provide relevant data and analysis, coming from three countries and over 30 districts, all in rural limited learning context. An external evaluation in early 2021 assessing our pandemic education methods indicated that 82.6% of learners continued learning if they had digital access and content. Learnings highlighted include low-cost devices, teacher capacity building, and tighter national syllabus alignment yet versatile and relevant content with limited or no need for connectivity with alternative power sources.
As the global community re-emerges from the pandemic, our evidence will contribute to the knowledge sharing of digitally supported education programs in the rural context and low-cost model that is contextualized and openly available to educators, learners, and policymakers. Collectively, as we learn from each other, our localized efforts can be accelerated while making a global impact.

Author

• Simon Mwangangi, Asante Africa Foundation