AFRICA EDUCATION INNOVATIONS HANDBOOK 2018 Driving Innovation for the Africa We Want

AFRICA EDUCATION INNOVATIONS HANDBOOK 2018 Driving Innovation For The Africa We Want

H.E. Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat H.E. Mr. Thomas Kwesi Quartey Chairperson, AUC Deputy Chairperson, AUC

H.E. Prof. Sarah Anyang Agbor Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo Commissioner for Human Resources, Director, Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, AUC Science and Technology, AUC

Dr. Beatrice Njenga Head of Education Division, Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, AUC Content

ETFP Guide Online one-stop portal providing information on Technival and Vovational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and jobs in Benin. 22 43 Mavis Computel A Mavis Talking Book (MTB) consist of a digital pen (Mavis Pen) and a specially printed book.

Foreword Message from H.E. HRST Commissioner 1 What Innovation in Education Means What Innovation means for Africa’s Education 2 The Innovating Education in Africa Expo The first Pan-African event on Innovation in Education 3-4 AU Education innovation Prize Meet the 2018 winners with thier exceptional projects 5-6 Innovations in EdTech Browse selected innovations in Education for 2018 7-31 Innovations in STEM Browse selected innovations in Education for 2018 32-39 Innovations in Skills, TVET, Jobs Browse selected innovations in Education for 2018 40-55 Innovations in Literacy, Girls Education Browse selected innovations in Education for 2018 56-66 Innovations in Experiential & Inclusive Education Browse selected innovations in Education for 2018 67-75

Published in 2019 by African Union Commission, P. O. Box 3243 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The innovations presented in this handbook were submitted by organisations or individuals who have initiated or are involved in the implementation of the respective projects, and have consented to their publication to promote innovative Education practices in Africa. Foreword

potential contribution to a revitalised quality, transformative and inclusive education on our continent for producing the human and intellectual capacity towards the Africa We Want.

The innovations and innovators in this first African Ed- ucation Innovations Handbook were identified through a call for submissions in preparation for the first Inno- vating Education in Africa Expo, held in Dakar in Octo- ber 2018. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the This handbook documents 63 innovations in the words government of Senegal for hosting this landmark event. of the innovators themselves who were present for the Thanks are also due to the many Member States and Innovating Education in Africa Expo 2018. Education is Partners who came on board contributing ideas and as undoubtedly the most important tool which we have at well as technical and financial support. our disposal to realise our destiny as a prosperous, integrated, peaceful Africa, driven by its own competent I would like to extend a bouquet of gratitude to all the citizens, representing an influential force in the global departments and directorates of AUC for the various arena. the Continental Education Strategy for Africa pro- support they gave to facilitate the success of the Inno- vides a guiding framework for re-orienting our educa- vating Education in Africa Expo and all our stakeholders . tion systems so that education contributes to realisation Sincere gratitiude to the Chairperson of the AUC, H.E. Mr. of the aspirations of Agenda 2063. This requires that Moussa Faki Mahamat for his continous engagement in Education is managed and delivered with due focus on facilitating the implementation of AU-HRST mandate. science, technology, engineering and mathematics; util- Thanks to the Deputy Chairperson for his support. ising ICT for ensuring quality and access; ensuring equi- table opportunities for all, for male and female, rich and This Innovations handbook should contribute to raising poor, urban and rural, locals and refugees; incorporat- the visibility of identified innovative practices and prod- ing values for integrity, pan Africanism, respect for life, ucts in order that they can be supported, upscaled, rep- peaceful co-existence and responsible citizenship; pro- licated or further developed. I am pleased to note that moting critical thinking and creativity, innovation and we have in this handbook an impressive array of inno- entrepreneurship; and taking cognisance of present and vations and innovative ideas from over 40 African coun- future generations. This calls for innovation in education tries that have the potential to serve as reference points development and delivery. towards changing the face of education in Africa.

This is why this handbook is a part of a game changing I invite you to look out for the next Innovating Educa- process in education development in Africa. The hand- tion in Africa Expo, at which more innovations will be book demonstrates the potential vibrancy of the educa- unveiled, to be included in the second edition of the tion sector in Africa. There are many innovations that are handbook. Innovators and stakeholders are invited to changing education quality and impact, one classroom apply to join the Africa Education Innovators Network at a time; innovations that are promoting inclusion, one by writing to [email protected]. special needs child at a time, one drop-out teenage mother at a time; innovations that are facilitating the production of budding entrepreneurs and inventors… and I can go on and on. It is high time that these innovations are highlighted for dissemination and replication, and the innovators encouraged and rewarded. This is why the Innovating Education in Africa Expo and H.E. Professor Sarah Anyang Agbor the momentum it builds for placing emphasis on Edu- Commissioner for Human Resources, cation innovation in Africa is unequalled in value for its Science and Technology

1 Africa Education Innovations Handbook what Foreword innovation means for education in Africa

Meeting Continental Targets for Inclusive, Quality and Transformative Education and Training in the 21st Century

“Appropriate platforms, frameworks and programmes, and policies have to be developed and implemented to enhance productivity and efficiency of Education.”

Education and training remain among the bedrock of NEPAD and Business Africa has launched the continen- en religious school curricula so that children acquire tools for human empowerment, inclusive prosperity tal dialogue platform “Africa Talks Jobs - Equipping the functional literacy and numeracy skills in the process. and progressive development. However, this powerful Youth with Adaptive Skills and Education for Employ- The list goes on of interventions that enhance the agency of education does not happen by chance. It has ment and Entrepreneurship” in 2017. convenience of accessing learning. And it is not only to be planned and strategized through adoption of in- concerning access that innovations are demonstrat- novation in education. Current demographic trends in Innovating Education in Africa is therefore at the cen- ing potential. Areas of quality delivery and enhancing Africa have seen expansion of education systems with- tre of CESA’s implementation as education should learning have been boosted through technological, out necessarily having the concurrent enhancement of remain relevant in the face of rapid societal changes social and fiscal innovations. Innovations for enhanc- productivity and efficiency, particularly with regards to to which it needs to adapt. Indeed this urgency of in- ing learning spaces in schools and campuses are en- improved outcomes in quality and equity in learning novation and its adaptation has been realised in some gendering increased interest in education to achieve opportunities. quarters among education dreamers and providers. higher levels of retention and learning achievement. Amazing cutting edge innovations on micro and rela- Innovative campuses have been designed for ensuring Appropriate platforms, frameworks and programmes tive large scale are being piloted and pre-scaled. Some school safety with early warning systems. Education and policies have to be developed and implemented have arisen out of sheer need and social economic systems should have ways of tracking progress toward to remedy this challenge. Innovative financing options challenge, while others have been more deliberate. any goal they set for themselves and their students. have to be found. Education and training must be seen Reports abound on successful use of e-learning plat- Concerns have also been raised on the quality of ed- as everyone’s business, and the government’s debt forms both on mobile and desktop computers, that ucation that learners receive. Many graduates present of duty to its present and future citizens. Use must are transforming the lives of many by providing op- certificates declaring that they have successfully un- be made of every resource, indigenous, endogenous, portunities of access to education at all levels, which dertaken studies in STEM subjects such as physics and international, new and emerging technologies to en- had once seemed beyond reach. This includes those chemistry but with little capability. There are also sev- hance the quality of education provision and learning who for social economic reasons could not afford eral other challenges faced by teachers and provision outcomes. This must be done urgently in order that we schooling, persons with disabilities for whom con- of quality vocational training across Africa. achieve the goals we have set for ourselves in Agenda ventional education methods cannot suffice for their 2063 and SDGs, as unpacked in the Continental Educa- education, child mums who have to take care of their It is therefore important that education systems en- tion Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), whose mission is babies during regular learning hours, and other sec- courage innovation and adaptation coupled with to “Reorient Africa’s education and training systems to ond chance learners who cannot stop work in order good evaluation measures and effective coalition of meet the knowledge, competencies, skills innovation to attend school. Innovations for promoting access partners in learning as called for in CESA 16-25. It is and creativity required to nurture African core values include social innovations and strategies to rescue only then that improvements from innovation can be and promote sustainable development at the nation- those who are denied opportunities, strategies to widely diffused as a virtuous cycle of promising educa- al, sub-regional and continental levels.” In this context, provide the support that poor parents need in order tion and learning outcomes. the African Union Commission, in cooperation with to release their children for school; strategies to broad- FundoVR Image credit:

HRST Department, African Union Commission 2 Innovating Education in Africa Expo 2018

The Innovating Education in Africa Expo is aimed at raising the visibility of education innovators and innovative practices so that they can be supported, upscaled, replicated and further developed.

he first ever Innovating Educa- The 2018 Innovating Education tion in Africa Expo was organ- in Africa Expo was hosted by ised by the African Union Com- the Government of the Repub- mission in partnership with AU lic of Senegal from 4th – 6th Member States and several de- October 2018 in Dakar, Sene- Tvelopment partners across the gal. The highly successful event continent. The groundbreaking was attended by Ministers and event was aimed a show casing Senior Officials responsible technical and social innova- for Education in AU Member tions in education and training States: Senegal, Botswana, across Africa in order to estab- Central African Republic, Dji- lish a multisectoral platform for bouti, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Alge- experience sharing on relevant ria, Malawi, South Africa, Chad, innovations that provide solu- the Gambia, Guinea, and Mad- tions to education problems in agascar. A range of AU partner Africa. organisations including UN agencies, international and The event was also aimed at national government and non- raising the visibility of educa- state organisations, private tion innovators and innovative sector and individual experts practices so that they can be were present. Over 300 attend- supported, upscaled, replicat- ees participated in the event. ed and further developed for the benefit of the continent. The event was colourful and

3 Africa Education Innovations Handbook innovative with a diverse range of Campaign, Ford Foundation, UNE- interactive and creative exhibition SCO, Plan International and USAID sessions by organizations and inno- and Ashoka Africa. vators. Participants were provided with a platform to share their inno- The First Prize of 100,000USD was vations and to network and collabo- awarded to Dext Technologies in rate. Exhibitions included documen- Ghana, makers of “The Science Set” tation, software, hardware, video - A portable, affordable toolkit for and audio clips and demonstrations students to perform over 25 science on education innovation. experiments. The Second Prize of 40,000USD was awarded to Mobile During a highly competitive pitching Labo Sarl in Togo, an organisation session, 10 of the top innovations taking Practical Science Education that were selected for the event to schools in rural communities were ranked for cash prizes ranging using a vehicle. The Third Prize of from 4,000-I00,000USD, and training 15,000USD was awarded to Nalibali fellowships. The AU Education In- in South Africa, an organisation pro- novation prizes were supported by moting literacy in local languages for the African Union Commission, One children through their fun-to-read periodical publication.

A number of plenary and parallel sessions were held, featuring presenta- tions and discussions by prominent academics, policy makers, business actors and emerging education innovators, as well as representatives from development partner organizations. These included innovative approaches across the entire spectrum of education.

The Republic of Botswa- na offered to host the next Innovating Edu- cation in Africa Expo in 2019.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 4 2018 AU EDUCATION INNOVATION PRIZE WINNERS Meet innovators changing the face of education in their countries and continent

Charles Ofori Dodzi Aglago Zinhile Nkosi Messa Blandine Angelin Marius Ghana Togo South Africa Cameroon Madagascar

The science set is an MOBILELABO is a Nal’ibali’s bilingual Our goal is to help Stop becoming... affordable, porta- laboratory for the reading-for-enjoy- struggling seconda- BE!! is using a series ble, and effective, manufacture of la- ment newspaper ry students to get of structured and practical toolbox boratory equipment supplement is better grades and connected events (dimension) that and service delivery. a 16-page, full- reduce academic and training pro- provides practical By using a vehicle, colour resource for failure by our easy grams to allow experiential sci- we can move easily reading club leaders, to use online revi- young people to ence education for to schools to allow teachers, caregivers sion system. We’re acquire critical soft students. It cur- students to carry and children. It is building a bank of skills needed for rently contains 46+ out practical work released every 2 20 thousand mul- thier career. components that which is described weeks during school tiple choice questi- The program is can help students in their science stu- terms (15x a year). ons which learners implemented in perform 26+ expe- dy texts for a small Each edition in- could use to revise two ways using an riments stipulated contribution from cludes 3 stories; their lessons and environment which in their curriculum. the school. We also activity suggestions improve on their is conducive to the What we are doing support the training for teachers and ca- grades. We are also development of is giving every of teachers in the regivers; motivatio- building education soft skills and direct student their own production and use nal messaging and telecenters for refu- training on the portable science lab! of science teaching information about gees and displaced acquisition of these materials. reading. persons. soft skills. 2018 AU EDUCATION INNOVATION PRIZE WINNERS Meet innovators changing the face of education in their countries and continent

Mamadou Coulibaly Nkosana Masuku Doreen Kessy Chizaram Ucheaga Effry Kuyum Senegal Zimbabwe Tanzania Nigeria DR Congo

The Grandmother FundoVR offers low UBONGO creates A Mavis Talking LIND KEY School is Project has deve- cost excursions to engaging and locally Book (MTB) con- a complimentary loped the Innova- schools in Zimbab- relevant digital consist of a digital pen entrepreneurship tive Program for we through the use tent for learners in (Mavis Pen) and a focused program Integrating Positive of Virtual Reality Africa. We leverage specially printed that is contextua- Cultural Values into which immerses mass media and book. When the lized to the existing Schools (IPCVS). The the learners in the mobile technology pen touches text or school curriculua. program goal is to environment as if to deliver high- pictures in the book, After analysis and improve the quality they were physically quality learning to the pen reads out evaluation of the of education for present. We create a African families the corresponding existing curiculum children by making near to reality expe- using accessible audio, including and pedagogical it more culturally rience using media technology. Our interactive games, practices in a par- relevant. Key IPCVS that is captured localized animated quizzes, multi-lan- ticlular school, LIND activities include: with 360 cameras edutainment pro- guage translations, KEY School propo- Grandmothers as and present it to the grams: Ubongo Kids, etc. We program ses a corresponding teachers in class- student in such a and Akili and Me are quality content, de- complimentary rooms; Story telling way that they watched in over 5.1 veloped by experts, entrepreneurial evenings; Interge- accepts it as a real million East African into the Talking education content nerational commu- environment. households weekly. Book in the user‘s and pedagogical nity forums. language. approach. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

7 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Ilewemi ILEWEMI Email: [email protected] Helping students find supplementary tutoring online

Benin

those looking to provide these of mentoring learners by offer- In view of the insufficient super- services. ing them better after-school vision of learners at school, re- support at home and by helping sulting in low success rates for Through this platform, we offer to reduce the unemployment of the various exams, many parents parents of learners competent young graduates. The develop- make use of private teachers at teachers for tutoring, prepara- ment of the platform is almost home. Similarly, young people af- tion for exams and competitions complete but the service is al- ter their studies face the problem for learners, psychopedagogi- ready launched via its facebook of unemployment because they cal monitoring and practical en- page. (https://web.facebook. have no practical training. Our trepreneurial training. ILEWEMI com/ILEWEMI). innovation solves the difficulty presents an effective interface these parents of learners (school- that optimizes the supply and The project currently covers two children, students, and students) demand of home-based courses large cities in the Republic of Be- have in finding competent home through the proposal of compe- nin. Launched just two months teachers to mentor their children, tent and experienced teachers ago, requests are growing and or anyone who wants practical and trainers, located in the neigh- many come from areas not yet entrepreneurial training to find borhood of the learner and at a covered by our services. So it is experienced trainers. better quality / price ratio. necessary for us to extend the service to other areas. We plan to To solve this problem, we are The platform also has course re- cover the sub-region within three setting up a web and mobile sources, corrected exercises and years by offering videoconferenc- platform called ILEWEMI which free practical advice for learning courses and also online cours- is a market where those who are ers’ academic success. ILEWEMI es like the MOOCs. looking for course services or comes to respond to the problem home training can connect with

HRST Department, African Union Commission 8 Organisation: CAYSTI ABC-CODE Email: [email protected] Coding and robotics lessons for children in their mother tongue

Cameroon

Our goal is to give equal op- We provide personalized Cur- Science classes in urban-rural portunities to every child riculum and training based neighborhoods thanks to our across Africa to easily learn on problem-solving & critical educational nano-servers ac- creative programming (cod- thinking approaches to devel- cessible without internet. ing, robotics) in their mother op childrens’ creativity, tongue without having foreign autonomy, and self-conscience Design for scale: abcCode is language as a barrier. skills. built for sustainability. There is no geographic barrier to abcCode is a Fun, Intuitive, Beyond tech competencies have access to abcCode or Adaptive coding environment and soft skills, abcCode rein- E-Learning platform. Everyone and an intelligent e-learning forces the feeling of pride & having access to the internet platform initiating chhildren cultural belonging among our can download/purchase it at from 07 to creative learners as their language is https://www.abccode.org programming and robotics now used as a practical tool in their mother tongue to learn the alphabet of the without having foreign future which is code. We guar- languages (English especially) antee equal access to quality as a barrier. Computer

9 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: CAYSTI Organisation: EduClick Email: [email protected] EDUCLICK Email: [email protected] Online bank of practice questions based on school syllabus

Cameroon

At EduClick, we’re targeting gross get better grades and reduce For the third segment of our tar- unemployment rate caused by academic failure by our easy to get made up of job seekers and the educational system which is use online revision system. We’re recent graduates, we’re build- more theory inclined with little or building a bank of 20 thousand ing an e-learning platform with no practice; Rigid teaching meth- multiple choice questions which thousands of skills-based courses ods that do not allow the learn- learners could use to revise their developed by African successful er to feel fulfilled as a student as lessons and improve on their entrepreneurs for African youths. most learners see education as grades. Here, users will be able to gain chores; Inability to provide the complementary knowledge, skills additional training necessary to For the second segment of our and competencies which would obtain decent work or to trans- target audience made up of dis- not only facilitate their inclusion form skills into income-generat- placed and refugees, our aim is into the decent job market but ing activities; Little or nothing is to build tele-education centers in will enable them transform what- taught about entrepreneurship their camps to help them access ever skills they could get into and self-employment in schools; quality educational material at money-making businesses. The displaced and refugee camps low cost and enable each obtain We’re building a service accessi- are not equipped with learning a secondary school qualification. ble with or without the internet material; and Absence of market- We’re currently making all school thanks to an integrated USSD sys- able skills for recent graduates curricular from form 1 to upper tem. and job seekers. sixth (both French and English sections) available on audio visu- The full featured product is avail- For the first segment of our target al format. These courses will be able at www.educlick.africa audience made up of secondary published on our web platform and high school students, our and learning halls will be estab- goal is to help struggling students lished.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 10 Organisation: OASIS Digital OASIS Email: [email protected] DIGITAL An integrated interactive software and hardware solution for e-learning Cameroon

Out of 100 students ques- OASIS will serve as a cy- Schools will be able to obtain tioned, nearly 65 have difficul- bercafé during class hours it through a loan-lease system ties in science subjects and 85% and will be reserved for stu- repayable over 3 to 6 quarters. believe that it is too theoretical. dent subscribers from 4 pm. B to B and B to C. Parents will Going digital can fill this gap, pay a monthly, quarterly or but our classrooms have no RESSCO is a set of 6 sub-forums: annual subscription for their or little electricity or internet. Mathematics, S.V.T, Physics, children to take advantage of Our 3 products/services are: Chemistry, Lecture and Exam Oasis centers after classes. The OASIS, RESSCO and BRIDGE. Preparation. Students will post centers will serve as cybercafé their problems and get answers on tablets during the day and OASIS is aimed at the middle in the form of a short video. will be reserved for students class urban areas. Here, stu- after the end of classes. dents will have access to short BRIDGE is a mini Offline and review sheets covering the 3rd, Offgrid multimedia station.Schools wishing to purchase First and Term programs. They It consists of a Raspberry pi 3 BRIDGE stations will be able to will also participate in Tutorial mini server, a mini video pro- do so on credit and pay part of 2.0 sessions on VR tablets and jector, a solar PowerBank and the amount quarterly for 1 or 2 headphones, led by mentors. 10 hybrid touch tablets. years.”

11 Africa Education Innovations Handbook EDUAIR Organisation: EduAir Email: [email protected] BOX Portable hub for providing e-learning content without need for internet Cameroon

EduAir aims to solve low rate of rate and make video according to the needs of Internet connectivity; The dif- calls within the local net- schools and we update them ficulty of access to textbooks work deployed by the Box. constantly. You can add new con- in our universities, secondary tent yourself to the EduAirBox. and primary schools; The lack The EduAirBox has the following EDF (Europe’s leading energy of library in our African schools features: company) trusts EduAirbox in its which often are not present; The Less expensive than a classic li- school equipment business in difficulty of access to scientific brary in terms of cost and main- Africa. The Wikipedia Foundation and literary journals in the field tenance, this box and its digi- (Wikimedia Foundation) has sup- of research in a student environ- tal library save space on your ported the EduAirBox team since ment; and The lack of collabo- premises while containing more we are now working to make rative digital tools to stimulate books than a classic library. Wikipedia accessible without an teamwork and idea sharing. internet connection in our Box. A school with an EduAirBox now EduAir (formerly Kwiizi) is the has its own MOOC platform for its More than 50,000 schoolchildren name of the concept to provide students and students and saves use our Boxes at their school or a better education via digital a lot of money on the develop- university. We work with Jokko- technology with or without the ment and production of MOOCs. labs and its incubator network Internet. Our work focuses on the in 10 countries in Africa to train design of portable and open me- The Box has a collaborative pri- young people in AgroBusiness via dia libraries in the form of Boxes vate cloud that allows students MOOCs produced and hosted in giving access to millions of edu- and teachers to write documents EduAirBox: an adaptation of our cational contents and offering an as a work team to facilitate ex- Boxes that was not planned before. integrated communication sys- changes and academic research tem allowing learners to collabo- We offer tailor-made content

HRST Department, African Union Commission 12 Organisation: SPE sarl LINDKEY Email: [email protected] SCHOOL Complimentary entrepreneurship component for existing school curricula Côte d’Ivoire

The following problems that is deployed through physi- and their place in the or- play significantly in slowed cal, digital, audio-visual and me- ganisation and community. development of Africa: dia according to the education- LIND KEY School is a com- Educational systems fo- al needs of each target group. plimentary program that is cused on diplomas with- We provide education for eco- contextualized to the exist- out skills development; nomic development, for actors ing school curriculua. After Massive rate of school dropouts; in the informal sector and the analysis and evaluation of the Intellectual deficitrural world (craftsmen, small existing curiculum and ped- among majority of ac- traders, farmers, pastoralists agogical practices in a parti- tors in the informal sector; etc.) with an empowering clular school, LIND KEY School Lack of collective economic method at no cost using an proposes a corresponding education for families which operational coaching strategy. complimentary entrepre- form the core of African societ- neurial education content ies. We also provide entrepre- and pedagogical approach. neurship education to fam- To address these problems, ilies to strengthen the eco- The training of teachers allows LIND KEY School is providing nomic potential of family them to aquire necessary skills a holistic values-based and members through a pedago- for delivering the entrepre- entrepreneurial education tar- gy of collective intelligence. neurship content from LIND geting students and workers in In addition, we provide “orga- KEY School. We are currently the informal sector. The solu- nizational culture education” is working with Catholic schools tion offered through LIND KEY also provided at the individual in the city of Abidjan. School is a transversal and tra- and collective level to enable nsdisciplinary methodology employees to know their role

13 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: SPE sarl Organisation: Eneza Education Email: [email protected] ENEZA Email: [email protected] EDUCATION Supplementary studies via integrated SMS, on-line and mobile applications Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya

4 out of 5 Adults in En- and study tools by SMS, on- 12 without restriction on con- glish-speaking Africa don’t line and mobile applications. sumption or SMS messages. finish high school. According With Eneza, students have the Eneza’s platform is highly cus- to UNICEF data, only 96% of ability to supplement their tomizable to distribute differ- the primary school students classroom studies at home ent kinds of content within dif- survive the last class of pri- by taking lessons & assess- ferent industries. The platform mary school. Out of the 32% ments with individualized can be used to engage people of students who qualify to be feedback on correct and in- within the rural communities placed in a secondary school, correct answers. They also over mobile means, collect in- only 40% of them actually at- access additional sources of formation based on user de- tend secondary school. This educational content/tutoring, mographics and determine means that only a maximum such as Wikipedia and ask- learning outcomes or measure of 12% of users get an oppor- ing questions to live teachers. metrics based on the use case. tunity to finish high school. Users can access all these for Students in school still have affordable daily, weekly and With the platforms analytical problems acquiring textbooks/ monthly subscriptions charged tool, there is the possibility of learning materials and individ- from mobile airtime in partner- getting real-time information ual feedback from teachers. ship with mobile telecommu- on user engagement as well nications companies like Safa- as facilitate communication Eneza has developed a tech- ricom in Kenya, MTN in Ghana through the use of relevant nology platform that allows and Orange in Ivory Coast. content over 1G and 2G phones primary and secondary stu- without having to worry about dents, their parents, and teach- An active monthly subscrip- the barriers of internet or cost. ers to access local, relevant, af- tion allows a user to access all fordable academic courses content from Grade 4 to Grade

HRST Department, African Union Commission 14 Organisation: Varkey Foundation MGCUBED Email: [email protected]

Fully synchronous and live education content delivery using satellite technology

Ghana

The Varkey Foundation’s ‘Mak- online, allowing classroom fa- learning in the classroom. ing Ghanaian Girls Great’ (MG- cilitators and children to speak Combating at communi- Cubed) project uses innovative with the studio teachers live, ty level, cultural values about satellite-enabled technology ask questions and respond to girls’ educational potential. to deliver quality education to activities. The Project equips 3 marginalised students in Ghana classrooms in 72 schools with Empowering girls through en- and successfully address some satellite-enabled, solar-powered hanced self-esteem, includ- of the country’s key education technology. 10 qualified Master ing self-conceptualisation challenges. Declining numbers of trainers located in 4 studios in and self-belief, and improv- teachers combined with a rapidly Accra deliver live, interactive les- ing peer-to-peer relationships. increasing school population has sons in Literacy, Numeracy and MGCubed’s approach has signif- contributed to a country-wide Lifeskill Knowledge Remedials to icant potential to be scaled up shortage of high quality teach- over 200 Primary 3 – JHS1 class- across sub-Saharan Africa to help ers, which disproportionately im- rooms each day. The Project also the pressing need of access to pacts on the poorer, rural regions delivers Adult Training sessions quality teaching in the most dis- of Ghana where we also see the to teachers, headteachers, disadvantaged areas, reaching the greater number of pupils never trict education officials and PTAs. most marginalised pupils. The entering school (36%) or drop- satellite technology makes re- ping out (27%). (UNICEF, 2015) The MGCubed Project impacts mote places accessible, connects 18,000 pupils by equipping them disadvantaged children with Since March 2014, the MGCubed with life-skills and self-confi- other learning communities (stu- Project has been operating the dence to pursue fulfilled, and dents get to see students in other only live, synchronous, interactive economically productive lives. class-rooms) and brings them all distance learning programme MGCubed has proven that the benefits of being connected in sub-Saharan Africa. With the this innovative approach can online from any remote class- support of DFID’s Girls’ Education lead to overcoming critical room. The use of solar energy in Challenge, we employ a radical- education barriers such as: delivering lessons enables com- ly different approach to giving munities to have access to power students and teachers access to Enhancing the quality of instruc- consistently without the cost of quality education. The Project tion within schools to promote electricity.” recreates a regular classroom and embed student- centered

15 Africa Education Innovations Handbook EDUCATION Organisation: Education Reality REALITY Email: [email protected] End-to-end technology solution to deliver personalised learning

Kenya

A critical bottleneck in achieving practical, affordable and usable tive, expensive, and unattainable Sustainable Development Goal tech solutions by providing high- platforms. Also, these VR expe- 4 is a massive teacher shortage ly quality, affordable, person- riences tend to be incompatible in terms of quantity and quali- alized learning. The approach across different hardware devices ty. UNESCO estimates that 68.8 is an end to end information when content is viewed.We are million teachers need to be re- system that is based on appli- driven by democratization, reten- cruited and trained in develop- cation & technology solution to tion,Measurement and scalability. ing countries if the goal of uni- share actionable and real time versal enrollment in primary and content. We aim at connecting A WebVR of Instant, free access secondary education is to be technology with people and across all platforms to content achieved by 2030 (UNESCO In- bridging the knowledge gap and that can be developed by many stitute of Statistics, 2016). At the enhance the quality profession- at the same time.This is so be- same time, existing teachers are alism, education and training. cause the world has grown more often poorly prepared. In sub-Sa- The ability of one to decide how fragmented and divided, we want haran Africa and in the Caribbe- they want to consume informa- to bridge cross-cultural gaps and an, around a quarter of second- tion and how they want to in- create a dialogue from mean- ary school teachers have had no teract with it enhances how the ingful human connections. Art formal training (UNESCO, 2016). students learn.We also differen- and empathy go a long way, and Our solution is a social enterprise tiate our-self through capability we think that the VR horizon for that leverage virtual reality (VR) of of our VR /AR— which helps capturing and marrying both is and augmented reality (AR) tech- students to customize their own uniquely expansive and valuable nology to bring scalable ,immer- VR experiences not forgetting an to achieve this.On the service side sive, experiential and exponential easy-to-use interface through a in education we want to offer cur- impact in transforming national selection of built in tools. riculum planning, competence education, training and beyond. development, teacher education The content and VR experiences and consulting for technology in- We are enhancing a learner-pro- currently being developed and tergration in the classroom.” fessional relationship through made available are siloed, selec-

HRST Department, African Union Commission 16 Organisation: Bridge Int’l Academies EDO-BEST Email: [email protected]

Tech-enabled education de-livery platform for teachers to increase learning outcomes Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda

Due to increasing population in in Africa can drastically transform with positive reinforcement, re- Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 billion chil- their education system to reach moving corporal punishment, dren will need access to quality hundreds of thousands of their and making school interactive education over the coming 3 de- primary students by simply bet- for students; (2) using technology cades. In Nigeria, 84% of children ter utilization of education bud- to support teacher delivery and in the lowest economic quartile gets they already have. Knowing increase effectiveness of lesson cannot read at all. Nigerian teach- this, in 2018 in Nigeria, Edo State’s planning through a Teacher Tab- ers continue to decry the level SUBEB launched a first-of-its-kind let; and (3) a digital dashboard of support they receive as insuf- pilot program Edo-BEST (Basic for education officials to measure ficient, and governments do not Education Sector Transformat- and use data to drive delivery of possess sufficient data to make tion) with Bridge as the technical increased learning outcomes. informed policy decisions and ef- partner to support 1,500 teachers In only 6 months time, the vi- ficiently manage resources. with digital content and empow- sionary government leading the er them to use data and technol- Edo-BEST program has drastically Teachers need to be up-scaled ogy to drive increased learning improved classroom culture and with content knowledge to ad- outcomes in 260 public schools teaching methodology, and cre- dress shortfall in delivering and 40,000 students in rural and ated a path to accelerating liter- learning outcomes, schools peri-urban communities. acy and numeracy for over 7,000 need to ensure quality assur- teachers and over 150,000 pri- ance and improve operations, Following the successful adop- mary students. By 2019, all 1,200 and administrators need cred- tion of the technology, this pro- schools in the State will be cov- ible data to inform decisions. gram was scaled up in September ered by the program and near- Bridge is currently teaching chil- to reach 7,000 and 150,000 pupils ly 300,000 students will have a dren in Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, in 612 public primary schools. chance for a brighter future. This and Kenya. Bridge’s innovative This solution, which permeates may be one of the largest, most teacher support methodology the entire value chain of edu- rapidly scaled education program and tech-enabled education de- cation delivery, comprises of a in government schools to date on livery platform addresses issues three-fold approach: (1) rigorous the continent. This innovation is of quality within the classroom and effective teacher training us- replicable and adaptable to suit while keeping cost as lows as ing best-in-class pedagogical ap- the needs and requirements of possible and affordable for any proaches that allow teachers to any state basic education system government. Education officials take control of the classroom in Africa.

17 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: NexusEdu NEXUSEDU Email: [email protected]

A multi-faceted software solution for school management

Madagascar

Education is seen as a major various actors present in the schools, a search engine for factor for personal and nation- field of education, this soft- schools, a support forum al development. But there are ware solution includes the- for students with difficulties several problems in the edu- following main components: following school subjects. cation sector which include: Office software for schools lack of parental transparency that can manage and establish Our innovation aims to pro- and monitoring of their chil- communications for schools vide a school management dren’s studies because parents to students and parents of system as well as communica- may lack a reference point on students, so school managers tion accessible to all, our goal the academic development can use the software to per- is therefore that any school can of their children, the lack of form tasks related to school have access to our services re- communication between the management and once all gardless of financial availabil- various actors working in the these events are managed, ity whiles schools with more field of education, wheth- they can communicate vari- financial resources can also er between schools and stu- ous information and changes afford additional services. We dents, schools and teach- to the various stakeholders; aim to enroll as many users as ers, or schools and parents. A website to host the various possible in order to facilitate online services such as the access and affordability for us- Our project consists the imple- reciving of various informa- ers, as the price factor is always mentation of a software solution from schools whose users one of the factors that discour- tion accessible to all, allowing (students, parents and tutors, ages institutions from using in- the management of schools as teachers) are connected, formation systems. well as the implementation of the provision of free or paid communications between the online courses by teachers and

HRST Department, African Union Commission 18 Organisation: Cultivium Ltd CULTIVIUM Email: [email protected] Personalised online learning and career opportunities finder

Mauritius

The problem is skills gap and erent queries. user database) and stash unemployment. The cultivium (encrypted communica- is a 3 in 1 product (website, Users are profiled by hav- tion similar to watsapp app, and physical object: recy- ing credentials such as ex- but hosted on blockchain) cled material either 3D print- perience through skills ed or transformed into an IOT gap training opportunities Being a Tony Elumelu Founda- device i.e a cultivium) which and references attribution. tion Alumni, I am connected aims at celebrating culture For each opportunity matched, with 4000+ entrepreneurs and with tweaks of artificial intelli- they obtain cryptocurrency the product can be scaled in gence,iot devices and connect- and are guided by a virtual all 56 countries.Mauritius and ed objects. portfolio manager(another pat South Africa are being used of AI) who would enable them as pilot countries and Luxem- The core here is inclusiveness to either re-invest or grow the bourg as Financial Hub to fine and self esteem enhance- virtual currency obtained.This tune both legal and financial ments in that spoken words aims at financial education and aspects through innovative are recorded and processed redefining networth through labs.Trials will also be launched by the artificial intelligence an approach considering ed- in Ivory coast from the 25th of tool which would give way to ucation, self-esteem and social November 2018 to the 3rd of methods or suggestions which skills through inter-country December 2018. adapted to the learners’ profile. communication i.e knowing The website would also act as a a country’s specific culture Once the IP frameworks of mega database of learners and through the eyes of a local. each country would be known, educators and social workers By-products include : African- the product will be gradually who would be notified through ium (Africa unified cryptocur- marketed there. pus notifications based on diff- rency), the profiler (AI-backed

19 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Cultivium Ltd Organisation: Kamaleon Email: [email protected] KAMALEON Email: [email protected] Making ICT accessible in rural areas using a vehicle fitted with computers

Mozambique

Statistically, very few rural com- and the Internet in communi- from the learners to teachers. munities have experienced the ties with little or no digital lit- Each quiz activity is monitored in Digital Era we live in today. The eracy skills. We focused on civic order to provide data on the out- Community Tablet was created education campaigns enabling come of a particular taugh lesson. to improve digital literacy in ru- local communities, students ral communities. This advocates and farmers from various age The Community Tablet hopes to e-learning as the way forward groups to interact with our plat- contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Africa’s development. Our form and connect to the web. by providing an innovative way strategy combines “digital inclu- to bring quality education to sion” with “E-learning for both By promoting access to ICT,we the rural communities in Africa. the young and the old.”” The fo- strongly believe that the knowl- With over 5000 participants on a cus on education and literacy edge has been expanded yearly basis, we are proud to in- to providing a digital context is amongst the participants. The form that 35% of the Communi- a response to the urgent atten- topics are educational topicals ty Tablet users are female. Young tion and immediate deadline to are converted into short video children and women are encour- attend to the widening gap of cartoon animation where users age to share the messages con- in the delivery of education in can quickly assimilate the subject veyed in a particular campaign rural and disadvantaged areas. being taught. By also promot- thus empowering them with ing interactive games where the knowledge and leadership as vital The Community Tablet’s impact in learners have to apply what they part of their local communities. the rural environment is aligned watched in the videos into the with Sustainable Development quizzes. This is fun yet solid way In partnership with interested Goal Number Four that has the to introduce them to internet partners, we have plans to scale object of providing quality ed- as a an important research tool up the both regionally and inter- ucation. Through the program for the specific topics to enrich nationally. We would like to have “Creating the Mozambican Scien- their knowledge. The Communi- available two Community Tablets tist of Tomorrow”, we introduced ty Tablet aims to improve com- in every province in Mozambique. the Community Tablet to rural munications among educational In terms of improvements, we are communities in Mozambique institutions through live video researching into innovative ways (Southern and Central Regions) conferencing classes and also to cater for population with dis- – providing the infrastructure to pre-loaded syllabus content on abilities. facilitate affordable access to ICT video, ensuring a direct feedback

HRST Department, African Union Commission 20 KARATOU POST Organisation: ILAN Tech. Email: [email protected] BAC Mobile application providing information support services to students and prospective students Niger

Many young people do not enges in while embarking on change where young peo- have access to the right infor- their education to which we ple ask questions, learn about mation to orient themselves offer solutions. housing, registration in part- after their baccalaureate. Thou- ner institutions (Morocco, sands of young people fail The application Karatou Post Tunisia, France, Canada) di- because of the lack of knowl- Bac is downloadable on Google rectly from the application edge of the sectors in which play Store and App Store. Once Help in finding accommo- they were oriented by default. installed, students can take dation; Personalized orien- Karatou Post bac address- advantage of these features: tation coaching by profile es the following problems: Choose my sector: Allows (future functionality). Soon Lack of information about young people to know the sec- karatou Post Bac will include: possibilities after the bac- tors, opportunities and have Resumes of final courses and calaureate; Lack of success testimonials of young peo- Tips for solving the exercises. models in the close circle; ple who studied in the sector. Choice of training that is in- Registration procedures: pres- Karatou Post Bac is available adequate with the job mar- ents the education system, the for download in all countries ket; Difficulties for non-capital registration procedures, the around the world. Today she is graduates (decentralization); cost of living in different coun- in French. It could be translated Misunderstanding of the re- tries. Examples of pathways: for scaling up in English-speak- alities of the outside world. inspiring young people and al- ing countries. While waiting, In all societies, education is lowing them to project them- for more impact in different a critical development tool. selves and break down certain countries we need to be sup- Every year, millions of young barriers of self-censorship. ported for communication in people face tremendous chall- Interactive forum: place of ex- different countries.

21 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: ILAN Tech. MAVIS Organisation: Mavis Computel Email: [email protected] TALKING BOOKS Email: [email protected] Using "Talking Book" technology to deliver educational content

Nigeria

There is a shortage of quality consist of a digital pen (Mavis A small group reinforces positive teachers who can provide qual- Pen) and a specially printed book. peer pressure where there is col- ity personalized/differentiat- When the pen touches text or pic- laboration and high degree of ed learning – especially in the tures in the book, the pen reads participation. Each small group mother tongues of the children out the corresponding audio, in- can learn at its own pace. It can According to the 2015 UNESCO cluding interactive games, quiz- even learn a different subject. Education for All Global Monitor- zes, multi-language translations, Multi-grade classrooms are also ing Report, 3.4 million new pri- etc. We program quality content, supported. These lead to highly mary school teachers are needed developed by experts, into the improved learning outcomes. Re- to be recruited by 2030. Sub-Sa- Talking Book format in a language corded average test results before haran Africa accounts for 67% that the user understands. and after the using MTBs are about of this number. Most of these 30% and 82.5% respectively. teachers are not able to teach in The Talking Book does not require the mother tongues of the chil- the Internet to function. One Ma- Our goal is to collaborate with key dren. Lack of adequate learning vis Pen can work with up to 100 education stakeholders across Af- materials in both English and books. We started with Basic Ed- rica to provide quality basic edu- the local languages poses addi- ucation to lay a solid foundation. cation in the language the learner tional challenges to the teach- Our Mavis Education Model en- understands, at a fraction of the ers and pupils. All these lead to ables children using MTBs in cost. This will be through the de- very poor learning outcomes. a classroom to learn in small ployment of our solution through Mavis Talking Books™ - Everyone groups of not more than 5 pupils donor funded deployments, gov- learning, Everywhere a Class- per group. An audio splitter con- ernment funded deployments, room™ nected to the audio port of the direct sales to schools, NGOs, etc. Mavis Pen and individual earpiec- We also plan to reach children in Our solution focuses on using our es connected to the audio splitter underserved communities across Mavis Talking Books™ technology enable sharing by the children. Africa through our chain of low- and Mavis Education Model to The children learn on their own. cost schools using the Mavis Ed- provide high quality, learner-cen- The MTBs serve as intelligent and ucation Model to deliver quality tred education for all, irrespective tireless instructors, while trained learning at school fees of about of their literacy level and langua- teachers serve as facilitators, $7/child/month. age. A Mavis Talking Book (MTB) overseeing many small groups.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 22 Organisation: Robert & John Ltd RODUCATE Email: [email protected]

Providing curriculum tailored online education for those without access to schools Nigeria

Roducate continues to effectively line, mobile USSD & mobile app. from students and teachers across impart education in accordance It also includes social welfare, the country. The current multipli- with the national curriculum. Ro- mentorship, counselling and fi- er effect in Nigeria is celebrated ducate is achieving the following: nancial literacy ensuring a robust across the country and used as a Providing education to Girl Child, learning experience.The applica- case study for inclusive education Boy Child & Youth on millions of tion was successfully deployed in at its best. In the creeks of Bayel- internet ready mobile devices. October 2014 and is used by over sa State for example, a region It capitalises on 150 million ac- 500,000 Nigerians on USSD Mo- which has been afflicted with tive mobile phones as compared bile service (dialling a shortcode) militancy, teachers have gath- to 62,000 schools in Nigeria; and 100,000 on the web. It is be- ered student communities and Providing education to the ing used as the preferred comple- used Roducate as a learning tool. 36% of Nigerian girls who mentary material for those who are currently out of school; demand better education. It has Our vision is to provide inclusive, Providing access to the full curric- revolutionised learning using quality education to millions of ulum/content for children who do several different “modules” and young people across Africa, with not have text books for all subjects; methods at very low / no cost to particular emphasis on disenfran- Ensuring quality education ir- the learner. chised and marginalised groups. respective of location, Improv- Roducate has made a huge im- ing examination success rates The content in Roducate has pact on education in Nigeria; and Helping teachers with standardise been highly esteemed and ap- our vision is to spread this impact content. To combat this burden, proved by the Nigerian Education wider across Nigeria and Africa. we introduced a simple tool, our Research & Development Coun- Indeed, Roducate has enormous patented mobile learning appli- sel (NERDC), National Universities potential for greater impact and cation and youth empowerment Commission, Joint Admissions some examples of near future platform called RODUCATE™. & Matriculation Board (JAMB) plans; partnering with Mobile and the Ministry of Communi- Network providers across Afri- Roducate enables “on-the-go” ac- cations Nigeria. Roducate is also ca for drive accessibility/uptake, cess to primary, secondary and endorsed by Microsoft, United Promoting Product across Africa, university educational content Bank of Africa, ARM Pensions, Glo Adapting video content to vari- in line with the West & East Afri- Mobile, MTN, 9 Mobile & Airtel. ous cultures, content availability can curriculum. It is available on a Roducate is widely used and has in multiple languages and pop- wide range of devices offline/on- earned numerous testimonies up education centres.

23 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Robert & John Ltd FACETECH Organisation: FaceTech Concepts Email: [email protected] EDUTECH Email: [email protected] Robust online platform for delivering education content Nigeria

Facetech Edutech Software is ad- ment system, which aim at software with the widgets filtering dressing the following problems: automating the activities in the subject, class, term and week. Poor Educational Infrastructure: the class learning environ- Inaddtion to this is the hardcopy This project addresses Poor Ed- ment in the school education- of all the subject notes being pre- ucational Infrastructure that al system. It consists of three sented to every member of the automates class learning envi- menu navigations namely: class, this rule out the stress that ronment in delivering Educa- All subjects: it has subject, the students will pass through in tional lessons to the students. class, term, and week filtered writing his/her copy of the note. Boring Aspects of old system widget exposed to the us- It could be used by of learning: with the audio-vi- ers. It consist of subject note Projection: through the use of sual aspects of the projects, it or text with images below it. projector, provision of a laptop makes the learning process to Image gallery: this is the and projector in every class of the be interesting. For students are aggregate of all the imag- school; By internet: placing on loosing interest in the usual es illustrations of the top- domain for each school. voice carrying method that has ics under a particular subject. become a norm in our school. Video tutorial: Video related to The users ranges through all Cycle of lesson note writing the topic can be uploaded and categories of learners includ- where the teachers and student view by the student as a typi- ing young children, disas- are becoming tired of continuous cal practical class experience. ter affected individuals, etc. lesson note writing every day. Drupal content management Every Subject teachers come in to system is highly scalable, flexible The Edutech software involve the class to project their notes, tu- that could meet the demand of the analysis, design, building and torials, examples and assignment any advanced or required fea- deployment of a web based and to the students without unnec tures in the future. mobile responsive application essary writing on the board. All built on drupal content manage- subject notes are available on the

HRST Department, African Union Commission 24 Organisation: Kekchose Plus KEKCHOSE Email: [email protected] PLUS Using traditional and contemporary learning methods to increase learning outcomes Togo

Kekchose Plus addresses the fol- nal content according to the cho- Togo with grade 2 primary school lowing needs: sen subject. pupils in a village at the end of Provides an interactive teach- 2nd step: Allow the exchange in the school year on the sub- ing experience by combin- the class of “”how to treat the subject ”how to write an essay” ing the traditional method ject”” (the teacher guiding the de- with the theme chosen by of using the blackboard with bate and if necessary diffusing vi- the class ”my village”. A slide a combination of audiovisu- sual information or on the board) show served as audiovisual. al elements and the internet. Work of group and synthesis by Three main ideas for sustainabili- Allow the ability to experiment, the students who have to agree. ty of the project are: develop the student’s imagina- 3rd step: Audiovisual doc- Pooling of resources through an tion and creativity by making it umentary on the subject, educational database accessible more autonomous and partici- and resumption of the de- to various schools, partnerships patory to the group, exchange bate to refine the 2nd stage. in development of learning ma- of knowledge, including mem- 4th step: Answer the MCQ terials and, training of trainers on ory testing and proof of error, of the documentary and the pedagogical method. used by a possibility of self-assessment. overall correction of it. Kekchose Plus. Adapting the upcoming gener- At the 5th stage, individual duty Development and provision of a ation to the challenges of the on the subject then interactive self powered mobile structure to future learning environment. corrections with passages extract- be used as classroom for areas ed from the audio-visual content. without acess to electricity. The process begins with the Playful teaching meth- Electrification of schools without preparation of initial course con- ods can be applicable and access to electricrity using solar tent which is adapted to the subject to a reserved time. panels will allow the installation teaching materials and equip- Self-asessment is possible via the of the equipments which are ment being used. computer device. needed for running this project. 1st step: Design of the educatio- A pilot project was conducted in

25 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Kekchose Plus Organisation: iDEVTech Email: [email protected] E-KARANTA Email: [email protected] Context tailored e-learning platform for training rural youth in agribusiness

Senegal

Our innovation is aimed at school material is made available in ad- nologically able to better de- dropout youth in rural areas and dition to a permanent connection velop his agricultural activity. contributes to Senegal’s econom- of available trainers and a whole The orientations will depend on ic and social development goal. team dedicated to the cause. The the potential of the market but Since many training schools are courses are based on data sheets also on the possibility to dupli- in urban areas, and to offset the prepared by the trainers and cate on the other rural sectors. gap between rural and urban ar- specialists in the field with new A scaling up of this project is pos- eas, we innovate in rural areas by farming techniques to comple- sible and even planned with the offering new opportunities to its ment the existing, the sheets are test phase and the pilot phases young population to fight against scanned and filed on the platform. that will follow. the rural exodus and migration. On the sheet we have the cultural Our project E-Karanta aims to be scenario with the different steps The project will take place in two one of the answers to the support to integrate theoretically and phases: the first is the pilot phase of the questions of qualification put into practice during concrete where we will build the project, and employment of the young works on the plots of culture in- test and measure success before people by a formation or up- cluding preparation and main- duplicating it in an extension grade appropriate to the needs tenance. Each stage is learned in and consolidation phase. At the of entrepreneurial activities. the classroom and experienced in end of the first 10 months and 2 the field and specialists are online months of evaluation of the pilot The solution revolves around im- to share and reframe. So we cre- phase the center is working full proved traditional techniques in ate wealth conditions for young time with theoretical training and combination with ICT. We build farmers by building their capac- practical experiences on the site. our solution on the basis of an ity through ICT. Modernize and Objectives are identified as well e-learning platform with course make the agricultural business as challenges but also an anal- sheets that can be consulted competitive with digital tools. ysis of the profitability of previ- face-to-face and remotely. ous sessions with the monitoring In the classrooms all the training Create a new type of farmer tech- team.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 26 OXYGEN Organisation: Oxygen Tech. Email: [email protected] TECHNOLOGIES Delivering education content using Interactive Voice response (IVR) technology Sudan

Education Accessibility is a real Audiance can listen to con- charge base on call duration. problem facing most African tent by make a phone call countries, So our solution de- to the system, then the sys- Currently we have a subscrip- veloped to be a platform allow tem will direct through tion DB include more that 1 to audience to access for edu- menues till he reach his tar- Million subscribers in our all cational contents and materi- get language level and class. language classes. So if we de- als from anywhere in anytime With partnership with local mo- ploy and duplicate this plat- with cheapest possible cost. bile operators in any country form in other African countries we can connect our platform we expect a huge number of Based on Interactive Voice Re- with their network to make the subscription in our learning sponse we developed a tele- service available for all mobile services. com solution provide a lan- subscribers in that country. guage learning materials and Based on daily subscription content through a phone call not exceed than half of a dol- and without need for smart lar, subscribers can enjoy the phone or high speed internet. lectures all the day without

27 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Oxygen Tech. PRIMS Organisation: Prims eSchool Email: [email protected] ESCHOOL Email: [email protected] Maths eTutoring services and and student progress assessments

Uganda

Africa has some of the lowest access world-class lessons, ents services enable the early de- math learning achievements in books and live eTutorials that tection and support needed by the world. Student math achieve- can improve their math learn- young learners in pursuit of ca- ment is limited by low access to ing achievement at very afford- reer prospects for Science, Tech- good quality teachers, outdated able prices. Our first country of nology, Engineering, Arts and instructional and deficient teach- focus is Uganda but hope to Mathematics (STEAM). ing materials (International Math- scale across sub-Saharan Africa. ematics Union (IMU), 2014:2). This Our scaling up model is highly situation is bound to become PRIMS eSchool is seeking to de- correlated to the Mobile Phone, more acute as Africa currently has mocratize mathematics learning Mobile Money and mobile inter- the fastest growing populations achievement in primary/elemen- net access penetration across the in the world (3%) and is expected tary schools. Our eTutors are re- continent. Overall mobile phone to contribute to more than half cruited from the best math teach- penetration across sub-Saharan of global population growth be- ers in each country and trained Africa has seen at a fast growth tween now and 2050 (UN, 2015). through a rigorous program to rate from 25% in 2007 to 44% in deliver an effective package that 2017. Mobile money transactions Elementary mathematics is a key is able to address both the tech- have also increased from nearly building block for establishing nical learning requirements and nothing a decade ago to approxi- a robust Science Technology, mental habits required for effec- mately $20 billion per year (GSM, Engineering and Mathematics tive Math learning. Our eTutor 2018). We shall provide our ser- (STEM) sector on the continent. also administer period diagnostic vices via primary mobile phones PRIMS eSchool is providing pri- assessments that helps students, but also other internet enabled mary Math eTutoring services parents, and teachers to quick- computing devices such as tab- and online student progress as- ly and conveniently determine lets, laptops and computers. Pay- sessments accessible via mobile the individual and group Math ments will be via a mobile money services. Students whether living learning needs and skills level. platform. in rural areas or urban areas can Our math eTutoring and Assessm-

HRST Department, African Union Commission 28 YAAKA DIGITAL Org : Yaaka Digital Network NETWORK Email: [email protected] Primary to University education content delivered online, offline and using custom tablets Uganda

Today only 2/10 children are Network is easing access to material to enable it get acce- able to access quality learning quality learning multi-media ssible by students across the in Uganda. Many children es- material. Ranging from Nurs- globe. pecially in rural areas and far ery to university level , the plat- to reach areas can’t attain the form has courses on all levels in We have just completed our same level of quality courses accordance with the Ugandan Android student app and are other schools attain. In some syllabus. Our offline version of in partnership with different areas, it’s the internet connec- the product which can be in- Tech manufacturers to dis- tion which may pose a prob- stalled on a computer and is tribute our custom made tab- lem to access wider material accessible on our custom tablets that come pre-installed and that’s why as explained lets enables all this access to with our offline version. We below we developed an offline material of learning without are also working with different version for this innovation. connection to the internet. teacher organisations coun- Also the inadequacy of ac- try-wide and in the region to cess to quality teachers It can be set up as a Wireless have their material digitized is a big problem and one Local Area connection to en- and available on the site to en- of the key areas we fo- able wider learning offline. sure that learners from every cus to on the platform. We have an Instructor func- sphere of the world can learn tionality that enables quality and embrace this content. Our innovation Yaaka Digital instructors input their course

29 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Org : Yaaka Digital Network E-SCHOOLS Organisation: UNESCO Email: [email protected] MODEL Email: [email protected] A proven approach to transforming Primary/Secondary schools into ICT enabled schools Zimbabwe

A national baseline study was ool is to equip school leavers with chers course developed and conducted at the beginning of knowledge and skills useful in an available for download on PC this project which showed the age of increasing technological and Android. Teacher training following general characteristics advancement to enable them to is ongoing so that every teach- about Zimbabwean Primary and contribute to national and inter- er is able to digitize and gamify High Schools: 1. There was a clear national development. The eS- instructional materials) 4. Sus- lack of basic ICT skills. 2. Practic- chool model comprises 4 pillars tainability: ICT initiatives should ing teachers were not trained in be sustainable at school level effective use of ICT in their teach- 1. Technical Infrastructure: (Monitoring and evaluation tools ing. 3. There was a lack of ade- All learners should be provid- for educational technology ini- quate digital Instructional mate- ed with daily access to ICTs tiatives have been developed). rials. 4. Access to computers and and adaptive technologies re- internet facilities in many schools quired to support their learn- Here is how the project can was limited or non-existing. 5. ing. All schools connected be adapted to other contexts There was lack of tools for effec- to the WAN and high-speed 1. The Zimbabwe ICT Essentials tive monitoring and evaluation broadband Internet.(to date for Teachers course was de- of ICT in education initiatives. UNESCO has equipped 20 signed to provide teachers with schools with relevant infra- competencies to integrate ICT To solve this problem, UNESCO structure) 2. e-Resources: Uni- into their teaching and learn- Regional Office for South Africa versal access to high quality ing. The course has an open li- developed a conceptual guide digital learning resources pro- cense that encourages re-pur- called the eSchool model. An vided in all schools to meet the posing as a workshop training eSchool is defined as a primary needs of all learners(Devel- manual or self training tool by or secondary school that utilizes opment of Zimbabwe Reposi- teachers anywhere in the world. new and emerging technologies tory of Open Educational Re- 2. The Zimbabwe eSchools to provide students a pathway to sources currently underway). model guidebook is available achieve success within a 21st cen- 3. Capacity-Building: All teachers for schools that want to imple- tury learning environment. Its key and school administrators should ment classroom ICT initiatives principle is the use of technology be proficient in the use of ICT and but don’t know where to start. in the classroom for everyday using them daily in their work learning. The vision of the e-Sch- (Zimbabwe ICT Essentials for Tea-

HRST Department, African Union Commission 30 Organisation: Phenomenon Tech. FUNDOVR Email: [email protected] Providing low cost excursions to schools in Zimbabwe through the use of Virtual Reality Zimbabwe

It is difficult to implement -ex way that the user suspends bel- mselves, without leaving their cursion learning and teaching in ief and accepts it as a real en- classroom. Students familia- most Zimbabwean schools due to vironment. Learners therefore rise themselves with real-life inadequate funds in the schools get an opportunity to virtual- experiences, whilst enhancing and the field trips being expen- ly explore an industry, chemi- their understanding of theoret- sive, therefore learners lack expo- cal plants, educational sites or ical and practical concepts as sure to practical applications of space without leaving the class- viewed during these virtual tours. education in the real world. Learn- room. The FundoVR innovation ers are disadvantaged, especially achieves this by the creation of The innovation has shown high rural learners who most of, do not 360 content tailor made to suit scalability through signing up know what an excursion is. The curriculum needs and use of al- 200 schools in Zimbabwe for its learners are therefore deprived ready existing 360 content in initial pilot program phase within of rich educational experiences conjunction with virtual reali- a short space of time. This shows and lack appreciation of edu- ty headsets to provide low cost the potential of growth and scal- cation due to not experiencing excursions to the schools. ability of this innovation. The in- how it is applied in the real world, novation addresses an imminent affecting their performance,The FundoVR service is provided problem to transformative qual- both rural and urban learners. directly to the schools at a very ity education therefore acceler- cost effective price. This is advan- ated funding and support would Phenomenon technologies of- tageous in that the excursions see this innovation being scaled fers low cost excursions to (field trips) are brought to the onto neighbouring countries of schools in Zimbabwe through learners virtually in their class- Zimbabwe and a potential spread the use of Virtual Reality which room. Learners in the deepest across more African countries. immerse the learners in the en- rural schools can therefore also The low cost of the innovation, vironment as if they were there explore and experience endless enables even rural schools to af- themselves using our FundoVR possibilities of science applica- ford offering the service to their innovation. Virtual reality (VR) tions, such as engineering, astro- learners therefore increasing the is an artificial environment that physics and be able to virtually viability of scaling the innovation. is created with 360 cameras and experience significant education- presented to the user in such a al places as if they were there the-

31 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Phenomenon Tech. Email: [email protected] STEM EDUCATION

HRST Department, African Union Commission 32 Organisation: Vlaby Platform KNOW YOUR Email: [email protected] BODY APP An interactive mobile application for children to learn human anatomy Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia

There is a lack of Knowledge of suitable for children, and anat- activity for children which children about the Systems and omize every organ in an vir- helps them to study the plac- organs of the human body due to: tual lab to make them able es of the body’s organs. 1. The difficulty of teaching sci- to study its internal structure. 3. The body processes: An in- ence to children especially interactive simulation for the vi- formation related to the human- This app is the first application tal processes that happen in body. of the “Vlaby platform”, which the human body’s systems. 2. Lack of visual perception of is interested in providing virtu- 4. Protect your body: The students about information al labs for all students to allow App gives tips with pic- related to the human body them to do their laboratory ex- tures to protect the human 3. Difficulty in understanding stu- periments in a more secure and body’s systems and organs. dents’ vital processes in the body interesting interactive environ- 5. Play and learn: The App pro- 4. Children are not familiar with ment and save a lot of time, ef- vides educational games that how to protect the human body fort and cost to the teacher and measure the achievement of chil- 5. The high cost of educational ma- the school during the Explana- dren from other sections of the terials on the human body and the tion of laboratory experiments. App. lack of availability in most schools For children from age 5 to 15, 6. Short tutorial time The It’s available now in Arabic lan- We are currently working on teacher is not allowed to con- guage, and soon will be available publishing the application in duct interactive assessment in English and French languages, languages other than Arabic, and activities for students Available for free on Google such as French and English, to Play Store. be suitable for publication in “Know your bidy” is an edu- The sections in the App includes: all African and Arab countries, cational interactive App for 1. Discover you body: Discov- We are also launching the vlaby children which presents an er the human body’s system;- platform, a platform that offers explanation and display a Three-dimensional show of the virtual labs for students to exper- bout the human body’s systems organs; Anatomize every organ iment with in an interactive en- and organs, with the possibility in a virtual lab; Achievement ex- vironment that mimics the tradi- of rotating every organ at 360° ams on every system of the body. tional lab. through an easy and simple way 2. Form your body: Interactive

33 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Vlaby Platform Organisation: MobileLabo Email: [email protected] MOBILELABO Email: [email protected]

Mobile science practice laboratories to schools in rural areas Benin, Togo

If “”science can only be taught MOBILELABO is a laboratory current artisanal scale by having it done””, science ed- for the manufacture of labo- to an industrial scale. ucation must be experimental, ratory equipment and service Construction of the bio- but about 90% of schools in delivery. Thanks to his vehicle, chemistry unit to separate Togo and Africa generally do he can move easily in schools chemicals from other ma- not have a school science lab- (customers) to “”get”” students terials and synthesize other oratory, or experimental teach- to carry out practical work (TP) products that can be used ing materials. Worse, some described in their scientific in other chemistry markets. teachers do not master the use manuals for a small contribu- Acquisition of molds for the of certain materials and how to tion. It can intervene in the production of volume mea- carry out some practical work. training of educators in the de- suring instruments such as Finally, there is no African ed- sign and use of teaching mate- beakers, test tubes; grad- ucation market today, a com- rials. uated test tubes etc ... pany that can provide schools, We are also working on pur- teachers and students with We aim to reorganise the pro- chasing a new means of trans- laboratory equipment in al- duction workshop through au- port in order to provide more most every field of science. tomation to move from the timely service to schools.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 34 Organisation: Olomangy OLOMANGY Email: [email protected]

STEM teaching program for children

Egypt

As we know, the teaching meth- which can help us teaching stu- program is STEAM digital content od of STEAM subjects in schools dents in a practical way in add- and social media channels. in Africa is very traditional and ition to local simple materials like lags behind in new technologies plastics bottles, papers, cartoons. We are working on improving and methods. Olomangy was the quality of STEAM education therefore started 4 years ago to We have different programs to To make our vision more sustain- address this issue. it is a social reach students and enhance their able, now Olomangy is working enterprise based in Egypt which scientific knowledge through in- on a new project, we are going to is working on simplifying STEAM quiry-based learning. The first train all the school teachers (es- subjects through learning by do- program is STEAM festivals; it is pecially limited resources schools ing for students (3 to 14 years) a live environment to engage ) on how to simplify STEAM edu- and educators. Using non-formal students in STEAM subjects in cation using surrounded cheap methods, we have developed a funny, play-full effective way, wasted materials. This program a mobile facility which contains they learn about new subjects will help the teachers changing STEAM instruments, activities, and like forensic science,3D printing, their traditional way of teach- experiments to engage students, programming and so on. The Sec- ing into practical innovative way teachers, and parents in practic- ond program is Mentorship pro- with zero cost. In addition, our ing STEAM education. Our reach gram for parents, teachers, and R&D unit is working on design- is 7500 students inside Egypt plus trainers; we facilitate workshops ing new science kits to provide 1500 students outside Egypt. for parents, teachers, and trainers students with different Science to teach them how to use online tools which can enable them to We use a variety of tools like resources to search for new ideas, practice STEAM safely at home. tech products; 3D printers, ro- different ways, and tools to sim- Follow us :https://www.facebook. botics, Arduino, microscopes, plify STEAM concepts, and Gami- com/olomangy. telescopes or any other devices fication in Education. The third

35 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Olomangy Organisation: Dext Tech. Email: [email protected] SCIENCESCIENCE SET SET Email: [email protected]

Portable, affordable science toolset for practicing school lessons

Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia

For years, African govern- cal toolbox (dimension) that room. Just like the math set, ments, Educators and parents provides practical experien- we have created the science have raised concerns about tial science education for stu- set. Simple yet revolutionary. the lack of practical science dents. It currently contains Collaboratively working with education at the basic level. 46+ components that can help various individual stakehold- In the 21st Century, STEM ed- students perform 26+ experi- ers (governments, non govern- ucation presents greater op- ments stipulated in their cur- mental organisations etc) it is portunities for personal and riculum. What we are doing is easy to adapt the science set to socioeconomic development. taking a step beyond giving curriculum of various countries This is particularly true for Af- every school a science lab; we with no or little modification. rica. However, for millions of are giving every student a sci- The science set is affordable students, scalable, portable ence lab! Imagine, every stu- and can easily integrate into and affordable solutions that dent owning a science lab that any classroom envirioment bring quality practical science contains all the components without the need to build a education to the masses are and apparatus needed for sci- science laboratory. This means woefully lacking, thereby lead- ence experiments. Now, imag- ease of implementation, ease ing to a lack of science experi- ine, if this science lab was small of maintaince and overall cost ence beyond the blackboard enough to fit in every student’s effectiveness. and a resultant lack of under- bag! We have created it, we call In summary, the Science Set is standing of scientific concepts it the Science Set and it will feasible to upscale as it is easy and low interest in science. change everything! We have to maintain; easy to use; easy created a science education to implementat; highly cost The science set is an affordable, tool that will bring practical sci- effective; and does not need a portable, and effective, practi- ence education to every class- dedicated lab.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 36 Organisation: Calculus EduAids THE BOARD Email: [email protected] GAME A board game for learning languages and numeracy Nigeria

Africa has a poor educational sys- or more and terms used in a ble the number multiplied by 3. tem; students lack a proper un- health center can be spelt in a derstanding of the fundamentals given game. In Mathematics, We tested the Board in January and basics in English language, players form balanced arith- 2018 with some schools. Our ob- French Language and Math. metic equations on the board. servation suggests the game im- In Math, underperforming stu- The equations include addi- proves the cognitive reasoning of dents have no flair for the subject. tion, subtraction, multiplica- students and helps them to calcu- They struggle to remember facts, tion, division, fractions, squares late math questions in their minds count, recall their multiplication and square root of numbers. quickly. Students increased their tables, solve word problems and In English Language, the Board ability to remember words taught are slow in understanding and goes beyond simply spelling in the classroom by spelling words solving arithmetic calculations. words like in Scrabble, students they could recall on their own. Many students especially in the are expected to pronounce words, rural areas find English or French explain the meaning of words, The Board Game can easily be Language difficult to learn and list synonyms and antonyms, produced for a large group of speak. Though English is the of- spell long words to achieve high beneficiaries, all that is required ficial language in Nigeria, most scores and recall difficult words. is a manufacturer that will Nigerians are not fluent in the In Mathematics, the Board helps mass-produce the game. There language and can only speak students by encouraging them is an estimated 2,000 distinct their native language well. to calculate on the spot. Stu- languages spoken in Africa, with dents will have to think of differ- the most common languages The Board Game consists of a ent ways by which numbers can being English, French and Portu- board, alphabet tiles, numbers be combined to form equations. guese. Though the only available tiles, sample call cards and a man- When playing multiplication and copies of the Board Game are ual. When playing topics in the division for example, students in English Language, the Board Languages, students spell words will discover fundamental con- Game can be adapted to teach on the board similarly to the way cepts like multiplication of num- and learn the grammar of many Scrabble is played, these words bers with multiples of 10 can be languages in the African Union. are restricted to a given topic per calculated by simply adding zeros To increase the reach of our solu- game like only words that are or multiplying numbers by 6 will tion an app version of the Board nouns, verbs, adjective, 5 letters provide the same answer as dou- Game can also be developed.

37 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Calculus EduAids Organisation: Aerospace Academy Email: [email protected] AEROSPACE Email: [email protected] ACADEMY Standardised space science course for children Nigeria

An average Nigerian lives on ate in classroom experiments or video analysis; Data record- amount less than $2/day and activity that mirrors the research ing and submission; Formulate cannot afford the huge cost of experiment on the ISS, and then conclusions; and Evaluation education. Our mission is to pro- do some type of an analysis and vide affordable and cheaper on- data gathering activity. These We have designed the course line education and create inno- hands-on inquiry-based activi- to be offered at a commitment vative solutions that help women ties are supported by near-real fee of $1USD to ensure serious- and youths overcome barriers time digital and video images ness because researches have to education. Our target groups downlinked from orbit. Also pro- shown that most people don’t are in the range of 10-45 years, vided are real time images of a value what they don’t pay for. which according to CIA Fact- control ground experiment be- Our feasibility study showed that book is 177,090,462; resulting ing conducted by BioServe Space majority of our target audience in a percentage of 92.8% of the Technologies, a NASA Research spend most of their time on their entire population, out of which Partnership at the University of mobile devices using various ap- we are targeting above 70%. Colorado or elsewhere. Student plications on the go than they We also observed that around research supports the work of the do inside a conventional class- the globe, particularly in devel- PI, while meeting the educational room, hence we decided to take oping countries, women and goals of the classroom and final our virtual classroom to every youths lack opportunities to ob- student data is provided to the PI home where such facilities exist tain the education that they so for review and, if appropriate, in- through our e-learning center desperately need and deserve. clusion into research databanks. and our mobile App. Our missions typically require We have developed an ap- several classroom periods which Currently, our learning platform is proved curriculum covering 65 could involve Introduction of hosted by the skill development lessons and subdivided in 13 NASA mission, Principal Investi- center of Uganda. Our dream is lesson-packs. At the end of the gators (PI) and conducting the to develop our e-learning center pack, we have 10 selected multi- research (the heart of the mis- whereby we can host our plat- ple choice questions with 2 each sion) which may include: Hypoth- form and students can walk in to from the 5 topics. During our mis- esis development; Classroom lab enjoy the facilities at their conve- sion students learn about the sci- activity mirroring the actual re- nience. entist and their research, particip- search; Observation and photo or

HRST Department, African Union Commission 38 SCIENCE Organisation: Mitz Innovation Ltd LEARNING Email: [email protected] TOOLS Locally produced affordable and portable physics teaching and learning aids Tanzania

Practical understanding of the and Vocational Training. nce and technology professionals science subjects is crucial in These products introduce a thereby enabling development. crafting creative and innovative new way of teaching and learn- With our innovative learning tools minds of students in secondary ing science subjects. A way that we also provide the best interest- schools. However, achieving this equips youths with practical ing physics hands-on workshops milestone is the biggest chal- understanding of different the- and demonstrations to schools lenge to most of the secondary ories and technical issues they and at our lab office where par- schools in Tanzania. More than face in class consequently result- ents pay a small amount for a 2,000 secondary schools don’t ing in improved competency. time limited hands-on session. have science lab- With an emphasis on girls, the Starting with a physics subject oratories, and those who have end products of the project gives the tools has so far benefited it most of them are insufficient. equal chance for experiential more than 1200 students through This means more than 652,000 learning for both male and fe- 20 workshops and 20 schools in students every year are studying male students, eventually bring- Nyamagana and Ilemela districts without having any practical ex- ing down the gender imbalance of Mwanza region in Tanzania periences on the theories from in science subjects. By using Sci- within 6 months. the textbooks. This leads to in- ence Learning Tools, learning be- competent graduates in science comes interactive and interesting We are seeking a fund of $70,000 subjects’ from secondary schools. thus attracting more students to for expanding the production learn and understand science. and recruiting more workers in a MITZ Innovations designs, builds These ‘easy to use’ learning tools company with a target of impact- and supplies affordable and por- are intended for schools, students ing 100 secondary schools (100 table Science Learning Tools to and Technical training institutions workshops) and 7,000 students in private and government second- at an affordable price to make Mwanza region for the next year. ary schools, technical training them accessible to everyone. The We are envisioning to adopt this institutions and parents with sec- benefits realized from using the approach to other science sub- ondary school level children in Science Learning Tools include: jects of chemistry and biology Tanzania. The model is designed Easy access and interaction with through Augmented reality and to reflect the official secondary actual science components; Im- Virtual reality technologies so as school curriculum as provided by proved performance in STEM to touch more areas in STEM sub- Tanzania’s ministry of Education subjects; Increase number of scie jects and speed up the impact.

39 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Mitz Innovation Ltd Email: [email protected] SKILLS, EMPLOYABILITY, TVET

HRST Department, African Union Commission 40 Organisation: IBM DIGITAL NATION Email: [email protected] AFRICA An online incubation space for youth to launch digital solutions All Countries in Africa

Many young african youth do provide African youth with dig- D - NA will also help Afri- not have the skills in the new ital literacy. The program will can youth find jobs that emerging technologies such enable African youth, entre- best match their skills. as Artificial Intelligence, Inter- preneurs and learners with the D-NA is made available online net of Things, Coud Comput- knowledge, tools, and skills to through the website http:// ing, Cyber Security, Blockchain innovate, design, develop, and digitalnationafrica.com , users and Coding. All predictions in- launch their own digital solu- only need an Internet connec- dicate that these technologies tions. By providing high qual- tion to access the portal and will be required to be produc- ity learning content, recog- start the learning. All the learn- tive in the digital economy. In nized certification, a platform ing content is available online addition, access to affordable to build solutions and con- in a self paced mode. Users platforms to learn, test and nect users with opportunities also have the opportunity to build solutions using these D-NA aims at enabling young test their knowledge by tak- technologies are not available. Africans ride the Digital Wave. ing online certification tests. For those that are able to learn these technologies, having a In addition to learning, users D-NA is currently available in recognizable certification has of the platform also get ac- English and partly in Arabic. also been a challenge to enable cess to a cloud environment Work is on-going to make it them secure opportunities. where they can test their available in French and other skills by developing solutions languages. The Digital – Nation Africa pro- in a sandbox environment gram is a platform that aims to provided onthe platform.

41 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: IBM Org : Univ. Abomey-Calavi Email: [email protected] CVERI PROGRAM Email: [email protected]

Etrepreneurship training through a volunteering program

Benin

In Benin more than 3750,000 ates to be recruited every year when joined to the sense of ser- young people have a degree to enable them to discover their vice and self-sacrifice acquired from the university but are un- potential and their abilities, de- through volunteering, allows employed. This is due to the ed- velop self-esteem and self-confi- them to become a new type of ucational system which is very dence and have a clear vision of citizen and a player in the de- theoretical and which does not what they will do with their lives. velopment of their country. transmit to the individual the ap- At first, a volunteer is recruited titudes and the behaviors which and allowed to conceive an idea Before it started, this experience allow him to be in adequacy with of a professional project. They are was written as a project with a the requirements of the labor then sent to a welcoming struc- well-established action plan and market or to undertake while be- ture that allows them to serve the monitoring and evaluation. Prog- ing a model of citizen and a devel- community while strengthening ress and end-of-cycle project re- opment actor. Young graduates their practical skills for the im- ports were developed and the do not know what they will do plementation of the project after impact of the project assessed with their lives, they have no abil- the volunteering term. Before the and documented. New coach- ity to create and run a business, end of the volunteer term, they es are mobilized each year and private structures see them as are coached on how to turn their trained and the label well saved. incompetent and undisciplined project idea into a business plan The team is fluent in French and and they wait in vain for State to and mobilize resources to start English and has been asked to set recruit them. their own business. In this way, up the national volunteering pro- from being an unemployed grad- gram of almost the same model. To cope with this state of affairs, uate, they are transformed into an a documentary film was made to the University of Abomey-Calavi entrepreneur within 10 months share the experience. The large- in Benin has created a Volunteer- of volunteering. They also under- scale replication of this project ism for Entrepreneurship system go a deprogramming and repro- depends only on the financial that allows hundreds of gradu- gramming of mindset which and material resources mobilized.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 42 Organisation: ONG Avenir d’Afrique ONG AVENIR Email: [email protected] D’AFRIQUE Mobile app with information on TVET opportunities Benin

In Benin, general secondary tunities, choice and follow-up The issue of technical educa- education remains the most of the educational pathway. tion and vocational training popular, to the detriment is at the heart of the con- of technical education and To solve this problem, we cerns of all African nations. vocational training which, have designed educational It is therefore important that by 2020, will make up 8% tools to raise awareness and each country can have a dig- of the total secondary gen- communicate about technic- ital portal that provides in- eral education nationwide al education and vocation- formation on TVET training (PDDSE; updated phase3 / al training in Benin. On be- available in all countries. 2015). Nowadays, technical half of these tools we have, and vocational training is the the ETFP guide and paper This application will be easy keystone of success in a com- version and mobile applica- to be reproduced in other petitive professional envi- tion available on play store countries without major con- ronment where employment and an awareness documen- straints. May the objective be is becoming increasingly tary to trigger children. He to make the TVET sub-sector rare. questioned the major play- visible and attractive at the ers in education who ques- continental level.” To gain access to vocation- tioned the conventional ed- al training that meets the ucation system. The targets job market, it requires prior retained are pupils, teach- knowledge of training oppor- ers and parents of pupils.

43 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: ONG Avenir d’Afrique Organisation: The MUDiA Project Email: [email protected] MUDIA Email: [email protected]

Connecting graduates to opportuities and jobs

Benin, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zimbabwe

There are over 11 million “According to “”The Econo- to information, knowledge, people between the age of mist Corporate Network””, and skills to our beneficiaries. 15 to 35 are unemployed in 65% of children entering Nigeria alone. Fact is coun- primary school today will The MUDiA Project’s head- tries lack talent! Education ultimately end up working quarter is located in Be- systems are not aligned with in completely new job types nin-City, Nigeria. We opted market needs, and the gap that do not yet exist. With to have a majority of our im- grows more and more each this being said, identification pact in underserved cities. day. of future market require- In larger cities, react is high The demand for highly ments has become one of the but the impact is low, a single skilled workers has increased most important factors to individual could be attending while the demand for work- avoid the new economic cri- multiple training programs all ers with more formal edu- sis. doing the same thing. In cit- cation and lower skills has ies like Benin, there are few- decreased. Without talent, We are conducting job mar- er companies who conduct economics will stagnate, and ket analysis and working training programs and none global unemployment which with companies to identify of them are conducting skills is currently around 200 mil- the next generation of jobs. training based on job market lion people will increase. We, in turn, provide access data analysis.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 44 Organisation: Alison Consults THE HANDS Email: [email protected] PROJECT Training curriculum to instill entrepreneurship skills in vocational graduates Botswana, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia

Over the last one decade, Af- Project is a hands-on three-in- youth population have inter- rica has witnessed the estab- one curriculum that helps TVET faced with TVET curriculum. lishment of TVET institutions graduates to integrate both de- and or even innovation hubs sign skills and social entrepre- The HANDS Project will reach 60 in an effort to foster employ- neurial skills into their already ac- TVET institutions by end of 2019 able skills amongst the youth quired building skills, while using and 150 by 2021. As the “skilling and other under-served popu- the design cycle to help them to Uganda” Agenda seeks to reach lations. Uganda alone has over assess community needs as they more youth and under-served 600 registered TVET institu- design for and with them. The populations, TVET institutions tions, graduating at-least over result is a self-reliant innovative are getting integrated into rural 78% of those enrolled. Yet until TVET graduate; at the pivot of the innovation centers, giving them now, there still evidence of a HANDS Project is non-segregated more leverage. A recent Govern- mismatch between employable curriculum with a positive result ment interest on Alison’s solution skills and jobs in the market; regardless of prior training or ed- has given it a 400 TVET institution TVET institutions among oth- ucation level. ambition by 5 years. As it enters er vocational hubs have lacked new markets in the quest to im- a means to efficiently inte- This curriculum is practically prove access to demand-driven grate experimentation and de- taught in 10 days, as opposed TVET learning for 22,000,000 peo- sign skills into their curricula to other term-long curricula ple in Africa by 2025, Alison will that are entirely embedded on in the vocational settings. It franchise solution to local provid- building skills, which kills inno- motivates creative confidence ers. vation in the product market. amongst TVET graduates.

Alison’s Solution, The HANDS 8,000,000 youth, 38% of Uganda’s

45 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Alison Consults Organisation: COSDEF Group Email: [email protected] SKILL STUDY Email: [email protected]

Online platform for providing vocational and skills training

Cameroon, Malawi

Africa currently has 60million pendent expert facilitators to use in Africa in the area of technologi- people who need university or to deliver skills to learners across cal skills, enterprise development post-matric education and if Afri- Africa in an accessible and flexible skills, employability skills, corpo- ca starts building tertiary learning way through any digital device. rate efficiency skills, community institutions today, it would prob- SkillStudy is committed to en- development skills and life skills. ably take around 200years for suring that African young people SkillStudy which aims at acceler- there to be enough institutions everywhere are equipped with ating learning and relevant skills available to meet the current de- the tools to operate in the pres- acquisition across Africa to bridge mand. Recent trends show that ent and future workforce through the gap and deliver learning and by 2030, over half of the world’s our digital platform where Af- relevant skills has the potential of young people 825 million with ricans can access skills on the up-scaling across the continent. majority of them in Africa will lack go through mobile devices. We have and are building an agile the basic skills needed for em- learning technology with all the ployment. The problem of inade- Through SkillStudy we are creat- 54 African countries in mind. quate access to higher education ing opportunities for young Af- by millions of young Africans and ricans to learn and acquire skills During the test phase of the inno- the skill gap and skill mismatch that previously weren’t. SkillStudy vation 6 months ago, we tested in across the continent especially in is becoming a favourite platform 6 African countries with remark- rural and semi urban areas is the in bridging the huge gap of skills able success recorded with over problem SkillStudy is addressing. transfer from the west to Africa, it 150 learners taking courses after is the right tool that universities 60 minutes of test announce- With the challenge to build the and training institutions are using ment. With the growth of mobile needed infrastructure to provide to take their programs beyond phone and internet penetration education and skill competencies the school walls to reach young in Africa especially in rural and to Africans, Skillstudy e-learning people that can’t afford full class- semi urban areas, we will up-scale web & mobile application tech- room structured education. We with ease and strategy. nology is designed for universit- are therefore changing the way ies, training institutions and inde- knowledge and skill is imparted

HRST Department, African Union Commission 46 PITCH Organisation: StartUpAfrica AFRICA Email: [email protected] Entreprenurship education and competition program students Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Few of today’s successful entre- ca offers a broad array of educa- ble career path and engag- preneurs benefited from formal tional opportunities for youth ing them in world-class entrepreneurial education. Suc- through the Pitch Africa. Three key educational programming. The cess and failure were separated learning objectives guide the de- program empowers youth by giv- only by passion, hard work, and velopment and implementation ing them the skills, technologi- trial and error. Today, there is an of program offerings: 1) develop cal knowledge, connections, and emerging science of entrepre- students’ entrepreneurial mind- access to resources needed to neurship that offers guidance set so that they begin to notice thrive in a rapidly changing world. when searching for viable busi- problems and recognize oppor- StartUpAfrica will implement an ness models. This science, based tunities, 2) improve students’ un- expansion and enhancement of on lean startup methods, has derstanding of how to formulate the Pitch Africa that will establish been widely adopted by mem- ideas efficiently, search for viable the ecosystem necessary to en- bers of the most vibrant startup business models, and systemati- able youth to become innovative communities and championed by cally build organizations, and, 3) problem solvers. Goals towards the National Science Foundation. connect students with networks this include expanding the Pitch wihtin Africa and internationally Africa footprint across the African Working in teams of 2-4, students of like-minded others, as well as nations, enhancing the digital develop a novel business con- mentors and enabling resources. and technical aspects of the cur- cept following the lean startup riculum, and increased collabo- approach and are supported by Upon its completion, Pitch Af- ration with entrepreneurial and a video-based curriculum, team rica is intended to inculcate educational community partners. adviser, and community mentor. new skills, expand job oppor- Competition deliverables include tunities and build networks Building on the positive experi- a written concept and live pitch for the participating students. ence of the past few years, Start- portion that address fundamen- Africa’s youth live in a continent UpAfrica intends to roll out an tal aspects of the business mod- of abundance, but yet, their un- Africa-wide program, in 2019 el: customer, problem, solution, employment rates is among the starting with 9 countries to take unique value proposition, reve- highest across the world. At Start- our platform on a pathway to em- nue model, team strengths, and UpAfrica, we are raising aware- ployability or self-employment to validating evidence. StartUp Afri- ness of entrepreneurship as a via- scale.

47 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: StartUpAfrica Organisation: Mweva Email: [email protected] MWEVA Email: [email protected]

Web Design skills to students in rural schools Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

The youth population has taken ICT is a vital tool to empower the to inspire them to become future the biggest brunt of unemploy- marginalized communities, we software developers, comput- ment as they register the high- have a cluster of mobile training er programmer or aim to work est number of unemployed. The teams that provide ICT training in any computer related sector. marginalized and disadvantaged to the underserved communities. We teach unemployed youth, communities including girls, dis- We use laptops as they are por- girls and disabled communi- abled, school dropout, youth from table to carry to villages, schools, ty skills in e-commerce, Digi- rural areas face even more un- community centers, organiza- tal Marketing, business startup, employment challenges as they tions, youth groups, women pro- tourism, and leadership skills. have the high Not in Education, gram, disabled communities and Africa is faced with a high un- Employment or Training (NEAT). other disadvantaged groups. employment rate, especially The problem of youth unemploy- We teach the following ICT among the marginalized and ment is right across the African skills: Web Design, eCom- disadvantaged communities. continent. We therefrore engage merce, Multimedia Produc- This is as a result of a shortage with different stakeholders to un- tion and games development. of skilled personnel, shortage derstand and find an approach We provide computer train- of a vocational training insti- that can help to roll out ICT, Qual- ing skills to teachers in rural tution and slow in adopting ity Education, and Entrepreneur- schools, this helps them to be- technology as a tool for social ship skills to marginalized com- come proficient in the use of and economic development. munities that is easily adaptable Microsoft Application Office. to other places, that is cost effec- We teach Web Design skills to We have partnered with youth or- tive and can reach many countries. students in rural schools, this is ganizations like the Scouts where a lifelong skill that inspires them we teach them ICT skills and the ICT, Quality Education and Entre- to become future web develop- participants go to disadvantaged preneurship training empower ers and design website in school communities they live in to teach the youth to learn skills that propel holiday as a source of income. them the new-found skills. in them out of poverty, leads to the We teach children computer cod- 2019 we hope to start ICT training creation of jobs and enlist youth ing using Scratch, a computer programs to marginalized com- to available job opportunities. games development application munities in West Africa.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 48 Organisation: SEEDS LearnShare STOP BECOMING Email: [email protected] BE!! Teaching soft skills in an innovative way Madagascar

Many countries are investing in opment program named: Stop to integrate, support and rein- a new form of education. In ad- becoming ... BE !!! Through events force this constant evolution. dition to producing young peo- and training, this program allows They realized that traditional ple who are competent in their the individual and/or collective skills-producing education alone respective fields, this education acquisition of these soft skills, can not achieve this goal. In Af- also produces young people in 5 steps: 1) My personality my rica, we are not there yet. Our with what are called soft skills. choice (the intrapersonal), 2) youth struggles to see, follow In contrast to the hard skills that Growing up with my relation- and enjoy all these opportunities. ensure a person’s ability to be ships (interpersonal) 3) Extend productive, soft skills provide my possibilities (open minded- Stop becoming ... BE!!! is imple- the ability to manage what con- ness) 4) Make my first steps (the mented in two ways: the creation tributes to that productivity and direction realization) 5) My mind, of an environment conducive to its sustainability. We are talking my present (continuous improve- the development of soft skills or here about the ability to manage: ment and sustainability). direct training on the acquisition the “”self”” that produces, the re- of these soft skills. For the mo- sources that are used, such as col- It allows those who benefit from ment, we are starting to experi- laborative relationships, and the it to develop interdependence: ence events like the challenge continuous improvement that an individual production capacity hunt, as the training has already is a source of sustainability. Ed- multiplied by a collaborating ca- proven itself. We focuing on de- ucational programs such as the pacity and infinite development. veloping the first cohort from this Montessori Method, Khan Acade- The world of the 21st century is program who will become the my and School Entrepreneurship so dynamic that it only takes one mentor of the next cohort and have been developed around the event and everything changes. likewise other cohorts; hence the world, but are not fully applicable Economy and finance, trades and name of the SEEDS LearnShare in many African countries. Such a education, culture and society association or the seed that learns program was born in Madagas- are constantly changing. Skillful and shares. Schools are therefore car. It has been proven for over a governments, like Quebec, are in- the best way to scale both nation- year. An association called SEEDS vesting huge resources to ensure ally and internationally. LearnShare and a personal devel- that their young people are able

49 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: SEEDS LearnShare HETAVED DIGITO Org: Hetaved Skills Academy Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] EDU-PRENEURSHIP Online platform for training and mentoring digital and social entrepreneurs Nigeria

The HETAVED Digito Edu-Pre- innovation uses both tradition- make it affordable and attrac- neurship Concept is a digital al and digital skills and tools to tive the average youths es- educational model that uses attract and empower the youth pecially those from very poor the digital tools and skills youth and women. Our ap- backgrounds who are now to make education accessi- proach is both offline, online and able to access quality educa- ble and affordable to all. As a digital skils focused platform tion through the digital space unique educational innovative for driving inclusive education. and tools. solution, it runs as a tuition free To cure and solve the problems Learning- working and earning of lack of digital knowledge and We have scaled this project system to train, mentor and entrepreneurship education, from Delta State to other parts empower future digital and so- we have innovated and imple- of the region successfully; Pro- cial entrepreneurs. menting the HETAVED Digito gram is always and easily avail- Edu-Preneurship model. This is able 24 houses; Program could Our concept also leverages on a unique digital revolution for be managed easily with Teach- strategic public and private training and mentoring digital er and students relationship partnership towards a holistic and social entrepreneurs even due to 24hour presence; The solution to education deca- after school graduation. land and most resources need- dence, lack of digital knowl- ed are easily found in most edge and poor entrepreneurial Our digital educational con- counties of the world especial- education for the present and cept is tailored on Learning- ly especially, among the poor future African youth. Thus, our Working and Earning which nations.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 50 Organisation: WAVE WAVE Email: [email protected]

Embedding soft skills in Secondary School curricula for improving employment prospects Nigeria

90% of Sub-Saharan African embed it into secondary school earned 1.3 times more than the youth will not attend university content. Instead, we offered the control group (NGN22,800 vs so more years of education would training as an optional class for 28,833). They also had a higher still only apply to a minority of students who had completed employment rate (46% vs 19%). Nigerian youth for the acquisi- their final exams. We trained in Soft skills are underestimated. In tion of soft skills. Despite a great the 5 skills that we have found WAVE’s experience, this is an ex- deal of evidence that soft skills most likely to lead to a young pensive approach with casualties are important, in Nigeria and person getting fired: effective on both sides: youth & employers. in many other countries, these communication, time manage- Youth lose jobs, self-esteem & op- skills have been omitted from ment, problem solving, team- portunities, and employers spend contemporary education policy. work and managing expecta- large amounts of money on train- Introducing soft skills training at tions, over a period of 6 weeks. ing and recruitment costs. a secondary level will increase in- 2 of those weeks involved job comes for secondary school grad- shadowing, where trainees were We believe an effective way to uates. placed in internships with em- teach soft skills is to embed it into ployers, so that they could put the regular curriculum so that In a pilot, sponsored by the Ford their new skills into practice. students can learn their soft and Foundation, we trained 69 youth We had a control group of 174 technical skills concurrently. In who had recently completed age-matched youth who were order to do this, soft skills curricu- secondary school on soft skills eligible for our program, applied, la must be accredited and teach- and matched those who were but were randomly rejected. We ers trained on how to use it by: ready to work to entry-level checked up on students through - Cooperation with Governments jobs. We trained them over the phone calls and site visits to em- to accredit a soft skills curricu- course of 6 weeks. The goal was ployers. In order to find youth in lum, train teachers, and integrate to see whether our intervention the experimental group jobs, we a new pedagogy into schools would result in increased income. used a competency-based assess- - Development of a mobile app to Our trainers were WAVE in-house ment post-training, to match them remotely train, monitor and sup- staff who have experience admin- with vacancies for which they port implementers of soft skills istering our training curriculum. had the requisite competencies. training, which WAVE is currently Because our curriculum is not yet 5-12 months later, we found working on. accredited, we were unable to that our experimental group

51 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: WAVE Organisation: DTBi Email: [email protected] VSOMO Email: [email protected]

Online Vocational Education Training through Public Partnership

Tanzania

Disproportion between the laboration with Airtel Tanzania scenarios. V-somo online plat- number of students and the for the Vocational Educational form was developed by con- ability for Vocational Training and Training Authority (VETA) sidering sustainability and uni- Facilities was observed to be a in Tanzania with the aim of in- versal factors to make it a best big problem. While demand of creasing the number of youth/ fit to deliver training for any vocational training increased, people who enroll and receive sector and environment. the training facilities remained training provided by VETA. Vso- the same or increased at a mo that is accessible through Since its inception, V-somo slower pace over a number both mobile phones and tab- concept has worked well in of years in Tanzania. In this lets enabled a large number delivering Vocational train- case a number of people who of people to receive training in ing provided through VETA. were ready and willing to pay different specialties. Below are After a proof of V-somo con- for the trainings were denied some of the features of Vsomo. cept, the same system has with such an opportunity. So 1)Accessibility: Vsomo Can been customized to deliver an V-somo platform was created be accessed via your phone entrepreneurship education to enable the Vocational Edu- or tablets; Enable to access it through youth program called cational and Training Authority from any location in the world Tanzania Digital Innovation (VETA) in Tanzania to increase 2)Flexibility: With Vsomo App Youth Empowerment program a number of students who re- you can study at your own pace; (TADIYE). In this program, ceive trainings in the Country. Also it allows you to switch lan- youth including the marginal- guages (Swahili and English) ized young women are able to Vsomo is a Mobile Leaning 3)Quality Content: Vsomo pro- register and receive the entre- Platform that developed by vides students with content preneurship skills and knowl- DTBi through its startup com- that are self-explanatoory and edge through their smart- pany called Magila Tech in col aligned to replicate real world phones.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 52 Organisation: Jobortunity HI 5 Email: [email protected]

Teaching '21st century' soft skills to youth Tanzania

In Tanzania, large numbers of of companies into a training pro- management skills. young people are losing out on gram. It designed the innovative 5)Little finger: Take little but smart employment due to the lack of ‘Hi5 approach’ which empowers steps includes life- and leader- educational opportunities, ex- youth to become confident pro- ship skills and proactiveness. perience and the right skills/at- fessionals with the right attitude, The Hi5 approach proved that it titude. At the same time, many social and technical skills to be is possible to bridge the gap be- companies struggle to find ade- employable. In close partnerships tween jobless youth and com- quate staff. In 2017, a policy note with more than 75 companies, it panies needing professional by the Prime Minister’s office for trains youth on 3H (Heads, Hands staff simply by enhancing social Labour, Youth and Employment & Heart) in knowledge, skills and skills and building characters. stated: “”employers in Tanzania attitude. It includes a Training of Train- seem to be much more frustrat- ers Curriculum; 100 topics Soft ed by the lack of soft skills than The Hi5 method specialises in skills topics; mentorship/leader- technical skills. These include attitude i.e. soft/social skills also ship curriculum and counselling/ qualities showcasing integri- called 21st-century skills, using coaching toolkit and a digital app ty, honesty, loyalty, and ethical one’s hand to simply remember: connected to an innovative social conduct.”” (GOT, 2017). Each year 1)Thumb: Have a positive data management system. 900,000 young Tanzanians enter and professional attitude the job market that is only gen- such as grooming, punc- Jobortunity is receiving emails erating 50,000 to 60,000 jobs. tuality and accountability. from NGOs, social businesses, 2)Index finger: Have a goal private and government colleges The Hi5 can change educational and direction including follow- wanting to incorporate the Hi5 systems preparing youth for the ing instructions and planning. approach into their education- job market, entrepreneurship 3)Middle finger: Stand out and be al programs. We believe that and supporting them to connect proud focuses on self-esteem, because it cross-cuts ages, job effectively with the world around confidence and knowing one’s positions and education levels, them. The approach is rec- strengths and weaknesses. that the potential is extensive. ognised by the Hotel Association 4)Ring finger: Be loyal and a team However, it requires to develop a of Tanzania and the government. player is about communication, strategic approach and system to Jobortunity translated the needs problem-solving and conflict ensure quality and effectiveness.

53 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Jobortunity GIFTED HANDS Org: Gifted Hands Network Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] NETWORK Empowering visually impaired women through training in breast cancer screening Uganda

Uganda has more than 1.6 million that carryout the early detection reduces breast cancer deaths and people who are blind, 99.5 per- and prevention of breast cancer increase on the employability cent of them are not employed, using their genius, heightened of the visually impaired women. society looks at them as non- and well-trained sense of touch This project currently has impact- productive people and misfits. to palpate. The training trans- ed and reached out to more than In addition, Uganda has more forms their disability into an abil- 2,000,000 women through its than 50,000 women with breast ity: the superior sense of touch educative program called Breast cancer and more than 4,500 die of a blind woman can early de- Cancer Free Uganda Campaign. each year because few health tect breast cancer lumps much In this program we educate wom- centers are available. For exam- more effectively than a doctor en on the causes, risks, effects and ple, only two mammography and in return blind women earn treatment measures for breast units ere in Uganda and located a sustainable income and save cancer once early detected. We only in the urban center Kampa- lives of other women from car- encourage and advise them to la. As a result, women go to hos- rying out early breast cancer de- attend to early breast cancer ex- pitals for detection and find they tection. This project turns their amination. We also carryout the are already in their advanced blindness into an opportunity early breast cancer examinations stages of breast cancer. Many of to create employment for them- with our ministry of health. It has these women are referred over- selves and to save the lives of won both International and na- seas for treatment, but 99 percent other women. Remember when tional awards. Within two years of them cannot afford the treat- breast cancer is detected early are looking at scaling up the proj- ment and transportation costs. through examinations, it can eas- ect to Nigeria, Kenya and South ily be cured by treatment meth- Africa since these countries are We recruit and train visually im- ods available in Uganda that in- also highly affected with breast paired women to become certi- clude chemotherapy treatment. cancer. fied medical tactile examiners There fore Gifted Hands Network

HRST Department, African Union Commission 54 Organisation: Kimuli Fashion KIMULI Email: [email protected] FASHIONABILITY Providing vocational skills training to physically impaired Uganda

Uganda has more than 1.08 mil- enge across the globe especially ties to the deaf and have empow- lion people with hearing impair- in developing counties like ered 35 persons directly who ments and 1.48 millions who are Uganda meaning that it’s a are now self-sustainable. Many physically handicapped. 95% of global need to include them in of their peers are seen as cursed whom are unemployed. These all participatory affairs of their or bewitched by Ugandan soci- individuals are qualified, but the communities be it social, eco- ety and often kept indoors due society looks at them as nonpro- nomic and financial inclusion. to shame of the family because ductive due to the stereotypes of their disability. This is why our which regards them as cursed, Kimuli Fashionability creates sensitization programs which abnormal, slow and non-com- up-cycled fashion and increases we conduct in schools and fash- petent exposing them to vul- on the employability of the phys- ion shows create awareness to nerability. In addition, according ically impaired and deaf people thousands to change their per- to National Environment Man- through training them with free ception of disability, as well as agement Authority(NEMA), 600 hands-on skills of creative tailor- waste. With our 2 slogans “waste tonnes of plastic waste are poorly ing. Training them with creative is only waste if you waste it” and disposed of in Kampala everyday tailoring skills turns their disabil- “disability is not inability”, we also and 51% is left uncollected end- ity into an opportunity of creat- sensitize Ugandans to see waste ing up in drainage channels and ing their own employment while differently: It is Kimuli’s great- unfit places causing flooding, wa- saving the environment from the est resource and we inspire oth- ter borne diseases, death and ex- dangers of plastic waste accu- ers to start small and grow big tinction of water living organisms mulation and toxins generated through up-cycling initiatives. through burning. African fabrics Turning plastic waste into artistic We create up-cycled fashion and are blended with waste materials. fashionable garments and acces- increases on the employability of In the absence of hearing, deaf sories which is a creative way af- the physically impaired and deaf people for example often have fecting all corners of our planet persons through training them heightened kinesthetic and visu- currently means that it can be with free hands-on skills of cre- al abilities resulting in high qual- adopted in all continents as sus- ative tailoring. Exclusion of dis- ity products with love for detail. tainably. abled persons is a common chall- We give employment opportuni-

55 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Kimuli Fashion Email: [email protected] LITERACY, WOMEN & GIRLS EDUCATION

HRST Department, African Union Commission 56 READING Organisation: Startup Reading Power Email: [email protected] POWER Tricycle powered mobile library for schools in rural areas Benin

Less than a third of the schools that students borrow by paying with international organizations in BENIN have a library and the 100f or 150f for two weeks of read- to have a real bus, increase the few existing libraries are con- ing. To be certain that the books number of books in order to cover centrated in Cotonou or in the are read, each student who bor- all Benin in the long run. In 2017, city center. This is a problem rows a novel fills a reading sheet our initiative was awarded at the because the last census of the that he brings back. From 2016 to Oscars of the Beninese youth and population revealed that more 2017, using our bike as a means we are the winners of the Asho- than 50% of students aged 6 to of transportation, 4 schools were ka Sahel ChangemakerExchang 14 live in rural areas; the mobile covered with more than 500 stu- Program thanks to the Bibliobus. phone and the television became dent readers. With the purchase Compared to a fixed library, the the main sources of distraction of a tricycle, we went to 7 schools bookmobile is more advanta- of the pupils and their level of with 1266 readers from Novem- geous because its implementa- expression decreases from day ber 2017 to March 2018. 66% of tion is easy, its impact is greater to day with the phenomenon of subscribers are female and 68% and its economic model is more the abbreviations. Current solu- are between 10 and 15 years old. profitable. So we can sign a part- tions have failed because most With the evaluation done in April, nership with the government to students do not have easy ac- we noted that 92% of students deploy Public School Bookshops. cess to books to better under- pay for reading by themselves stand their classes and their level and 95% of subscribers will up- The state cannot build libraries of expression is not improving. grade to higher education. This everywhere, but with its limited shows their willingness to return resources, you can deploy a Bib- We have deployed a mobile li- to reading. The revenues earned liobus with a strong social impact. brary (www.facebook.com/Bib- cover our expenses for transpor- We can also deploy Municipal Li- liobusReadingPower) in Abom- tation, catering, maintenance and braries in partnership with town ey-Calavi. This consists of visiting book purchases and generate a halls, and then bring service clubs schools in rural areas every two profit margin that is reinvested in such as Rotary, JCI, Lions Club, to weeks with various books (text- the activity. cover the cost of reading for stu- books, children’s novels, comics) We are looking for a partnership dents in difficult situations.

57 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: SEPHIS SEPHIS Email: [email protected]

Mentorship program to empower young girls through skills training

Côte d’Ivoire

The successive crises that crossed national , prestigious mentor- leaders of public and private sec- our country caused a devalua- ship and leadership program tor. During the first edition, the tion of the education system . translated into a scholarship and first cohort had the privilege to This had a negative impact on immersion program. Following exchange with the Ivorian Prime youth in general and girls ac- a selective process, 24 girls from Minister, HE Amadou Gon Couli- cess to education in particular different geographical areas of baly, The Ivorian Minister Thierry and increase the gap of gen- Côte d’Ivoire will be placed in a Tanoh and the Chargé d’Affaire der disparity. The elimination of center where they will receive in- of the US Embassy Mrs Kath- gender in-equalities and tensive training for six (6) weeks erine Brucker among others. women empowerment through on very specific topics, in an ac- The impact of this program lies in education can significantly in- ademic setting and led by quali- its sustainability, which is why the crease the potential of thousands fied people in order to be leaders partnership requests that will be of women. The aspiration then and competent women. These 24 established around this program of the African Women of the Fu- young women will be placed in a must cover most of the session. ture program is to bring knowl- training center from June August edge and practical solutions to each year. The training will be in After their training each of the young women in Côte d’Ivoire different forms: theoretical and 24 Fellows will have to work through projects by revitalizing practical. For the theoretical part, with the next cohort of fellows girls access to quality education, the 24 young women are trained as peer collaborators during the and to help gender equality to by experts in the below areas: 6 weeks of training of these fel- become a reality in the country. Women empowerment; Gender lows. Thus, the generations will Equality and Social Cohesion; be interconnected (giving-back). The African Women of the Future Leadership and Decision Making; the 3rd and 4th sessions of this Fellowship is a training program Women’s Rights ; Good Gover- program SEPHIS intends to de- for young women (positive dis- nance; Communication and Tech- velop the AWF program at the crimination), which aims at sup- nology; Public Speaking; Civic regional level, notably in Sene- porting throug education ambi- Engagement and Development. gal and Togo. This work will be tious and brilliant young girls but The practical part is dedicated to carried out through the SEPHIS also to achieve greater equality exchange and experience sharing ambassadors which have been between the sexes. AWF is also a during high level meet-up with established since 2015.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 58 SMART LANGUAGE Organisation: ESC Fellowship LEARNING PROGRAM Email: [email protected]

Innovative program for learning a second language

Côte d’Ivoire

My innovation is addressing a tutoring that eases the understa- ren”” will be launched soon in major problem in francophone nding and assimilation of the En- order to reach children from un- sub-Saharan countries in Africa glish language, a mobile applica- derprivileged environments and which is the low literacy rate in tion with the aim to create an An- assist them not only with basic regard to the English language. glophone environment though needs but access to coaching and Meanwhile, no matter one s field living a francophone surrounding learning materials so far as the of expertise, the English language with the help of daily assigned English language is concerned. is very much needed and serves as tasks to users, the introduction a vital tool to work and cooperate of a virtual reality experience to The innovation can be up-scaled with foreign nations. There is no users that makes interaction with in the current context and adapt- denial that, we do have as prima- native speakers and touristic vis- ed to other contexts through ry language the French language its to Anglophone environment technological means, the creation but, can increase our chances on possible with the help of a head- of adequate virtual reality mod- the global market with English set. Last but not least, is the sub- ules so far as the English language as a secondary language. The division related to an educational is concerned, sensitization and main objective of my innovation TV reality show that will be aired training of professionals already is not only to fill a void in Educa- on our national African franco- involved in the tutoring system tion but more importantly, solve phone television channels with about the revolutionary method a problem in order to contribute the aim to promote the English used to address the problem. This to socio economic development. language and draw awareness can be done through transferable about the importance of English skills. This method will ensure The innovation solution I am im- literacy in African francophone progressive and uniform social plementing is currently made countries. impact not only in my country up of four subdivisions which in- In addition, a voluntary activity but other African countries facing clude, a revolutionary method of called, “”Help and Train the Child- the same issue.

59 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: ESC Fellowship Organisation: Nubi Email: [email protected] NUBI Email: [email protected]

Local language learning for children through play

Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania

The Nubian language is an an- ture. connects through informal clubs, cient language, spoken in Egypt, sharing information on Face- Sudan, and in worldwide Nubian NUBI is developing networks book, Twitter, and other social communities by approximately within Egypt to create a first-of- media. NUBI is unique in its focus 10 million people. It is the most its-type Nubian language teach- on teaching Nubian, especially to ancient written language in the ing curriculum, and is already children. There are no compet- world, whose letters are derived teaching Nubian to smart-phone ing or complimentary projects from ancient Greek. In Egypt and owners through its application or programs to those proposed Sudan - where the vast majority “NUBI.” Nubian children are the and now executed by NUBI. of Nubians now live - there is no segment of the Nubian popula- The entire Nubian commu- formal government, public, or tion targeted for NUBI’s learning nities of 10M people are the private institutions which recog- package, a set of children’s games beneficiaries of NUBI’s work. nize and support Nubian. specifically used for teaching the Nubian alphabet and lan- There is no segregation by gender The language is learned in fam- guage through play. As NUBI or age; however NUBI recognizes ily settings or in small, informal matures, it will expand its activi- the importance of targeting chil- language courses or camps. ties to promote Nubian through dren in its programs since children Even today, there is no Nubian a library dedicated to collecting, are susceptible to the draw of glo- language curriculum, no formal safeguarding, and promulgat- balization (media, entertainment, school dedicated to teaching ing any and all materials (books, and gaming) which distances Nubian. The language is en- poems, short stories, songs) them from their Nubian heritage. dangered as young generations created in Nubian. Current- developing and promoting new NUBI organization was founded ly, there is no library anywhere product ( NUBI Learning pack- in 2017 specifically to promote safeguarding and disseminat- age ) to help the Nubian children the learning, usage, and safe- ing Nubian language materials. learning the language in easy keeping of the Nubian language, Presently, the Nubian community way. and by extension, the Nubian cul- in Egypt, Sudan, and worldwide

HRST Department, African Union Commission 60 Organisation: Third Hand Initiative LITERACY FOR Org: Litteracy for Women Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] WOMEN Literacy for women through community learning centres Nigeria

UNESCO identified that 182 mil- ds, and locating the CLCs in the nity. By impacting knowledge in lion Africans are illiterates, and community provided venues the lives of community members, two-thirds of them are women; In (most especially), Government bringing them together to discuss Nigeria, 65 million are illiterates, schools. Adult learners receive about the challenges faced at the inclusive of 35 million adults. lectures 3 days a week, 6 hours community and the way forward, This is why Literacy for Adult and a week for 13 weeks that makes and helping to encourage them Education for Women Initiative a Term, and 3 Terms a year that for been positive in their thinking. (LADEWIN) as an NGO and NPO makes a session, and are grad- has the mandate of assisting the uated after 3 sessions. Their lec- Some of the impacts made degrading educational system in ture courses and curriculum are in the lives of uneducat- Nigeria through provision of adult UNESCO Federal Ministry of Edu- ed rural Nigerians are: basic education for rural and semi cation recommended which are: Graduated 12 adult learn- urban communities. It aims at Numeracy, Literacy, Sanitation ers who are now abe to teaching uneducated adults how and Health, Community Organ- read, speak and write; to read, write, spell and speak in isation & Social Reconstruction, 2 adult learners have gotten ad- English in order for them to live a Information & Communication mission to higher institutions, in better, richer and fuller life both Technology, and Skill Acquisition. addition to 4, 8 and 12 learners as individual and as social units. We also organize leadership who have written WAEC, Junior Seminars for both adult learn- WAEC and Common Entrance We help in solving education- ers and facilitators. We embark Examinations respectively; al problems in Nigeria through on community sanitation in Several rural residents have provision of free Adult basic Edu- promoting preventive mea- learns several skills ranging from cation, Skill Acquisition, and Em- sures of communicable diseases. Catering to Cake making to Soap powerment for rural and semi-ur- We go from houses to houses, making; As at August 2018, we ban community residents. These shops to shops for awareness ral- have 4 active Community Learn- are done through establishment ly in order to enlighten the rural ing Centers in rural communities of Community Learning Centres settler to be involved in our adult in Nigeria, with an average of 60 (CLCs)- in collaborations with the education classes. This is a pract- learners per centers. community and community hea- ical involvement of the commu-

61 Africa Education Innovations Handbook MOBILE MICRO Org: Rotel Foundation Email: [email protected] SCHOOL-GIS INPUT GIS equiped mobile micro-schools Nigeria

remote communities to lime- In Nigeria, over 10.5 million chil- the capacity to provide long light by taking its Geo-points dren are out of school and of life learning opportunities for and developing its map for this figure, about 60% are fe- girls and women to provide en- easy access by stakeholders males. Globally, the rate of illit- trepreneurship empowerment and NGOs when reaching them eracy among women is high, of for poor/marginalized girls and to provide further support. the world’s 774 million illiter- women from 4 years to 28 years, ate adults, 2/3 are women and It is a collective understanding The innovation is highly cost ef- among the world 123 million illit- that girls and women are the fective since our tutors are under erate youths, 76 millions are girls. most vulnerable in the society. graduates drawn from colleges During my research last year on The mobile micro school- of education. We also recruit in- girl child education in villages, I GIS Input (MMS-GISI) is a new dividual for teaching practice or found that there is high level of innovation. The MMS-GI- internship, and this category are illiteracy in remote areas, and fe- SI delivers a twin program: not entitle to any payment, its males in these places are vulner- 1)Educating women and girls on voluntarily. With the innovation able. Because we take education how to read, write and commu- more so, more girls and women to their door mouth and empow- nicate in English and empow- can be reached at once in their er them, the innovation has the ering them with entrepreneur- communities. Looking at other al- capacity to scale globally. Goal 5 ship knowledge and skills with ternative available such as taking of the Sustainable Development major focus on those living in girls from their homes to the city goals is ACHIEVE gender equal- hard/far to reach settlements, for education opportunity is com- ity and empower ALL girls and slums/riverine areas and poor/ mon, almost everywhere globally. women. Goal 1 is end poverty in marginalized communities. We This approach is not only expen- all its forms everywhere. Goal 10 go their settlements and estab- sive, but it is not reliable as over is to reduce inequality within and lish learning boot camps, mov- 80% of these girls return home among countries. ing from settlement to settle- after a while, and most of them ments and slums to slums to complain of bully and neglect The innovation –Mobile Micro deliver service and impact lives. due to their age, background School-GIS Input (MMS-GISI)was Learning take place under trees, and inability to read, write and designed to achieve all of the canopies or any open space. communicate in English. The ap- above SDGs. The innovation has 2)Using GIS tools to bring the proach is also highly expensive.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 62 Org: Rotel Foundation Organisation: WVI Email: [email protected] LITERACY BOOST Email: [email protected] & CVA Ehancing reading comprehension for children using an integrated program Senegal

In Senegal, assessments and Boost are: itoring of norms and standards measures against benchmarks 1)Assessments: Baseline that promote the teaching of read for learning achievement have at the beginning and End- ing at school and in community revealed that less than 50% of line at the end of the proj- 5) Train CVA groups to develop, learners in the second grade of ect, using Tangerine software vote on and then monitor the lo- primary schools have been ac- 2)School component: training cal budget allocated to education quiring reading comprehension teachers on the five compo- 6) Engage local government to skills in recent years. This sees nents of innovative reading, and help scale up sustainable ap- Senegal falling short of the pre- creating a literate environment proaches such as Literacy Boost scribed standard of 80% of stu- 3)Community involvement: dents being able to read and un- two reading clubs per school The project is adaptable to all derstand. the observation is that: at community level, creation contexts with the involvement Many teachers have difficults to of reading resources from local of communities and school au- teach reading; The reading re- material with Bloom software, thorities. A pilot with project in- sources are inadequate and are training sessions for parents on tervention classes and control not varied; Most parents do not in- supporting children in the home classes is required to measure vest enough in children schooling. In order for “”Literacy Boost”” to the gain of the project. Involve better support the teaching of communities in data collection, The innovation “Literacy Boost reading and to achieve the antici- data dissection and the recruit- and Citizen voice and action pated outcomes, the programme ment of community volunteers. (CVA)”” and aims to promote abil- requires rigorous adherence to Depending on the context, one ity in reading comprehension educational norms and stan- component can be implemented among students 6-8 year-olds. It dards, particularly where reading without the other: for example, combines the teaching of read- skills are concerned. The World run community-based reading ing skills in school and commu- Vision CVA model will be used clubs and local material creation nity with the progressive syllabic to engage communities, chil- only in the context of a teachers’ teaching method, which is based dren and local authorities more strike or absence of school (crisis on ‘knowledge of letters, aware- deeply in order to improve the situation, nomadic populations) ness of phonemes, vocabulary, conditions for teaching reading. or engaging communities to in- fluency and comprehension’. 4) Train the communities involv- fluence decision-makers to sup- The basic components of Literacy ing in Literacy Boost on the mon- port education norms.

63 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Nal’ibali Trust NALIBALI Email: [email protected]

Promoting the the culture of reading though fun stories in native language South Africa

South Africa has 11 official lan- onal messaging and informa- high-quality reading materials, guages. Most children learn in tion about reading; news from Nal’ibali is mobilizing a move- their home language until Grade the Nal’ibali network; and games ment of literacy activists, support- 3, and in English from Grade 4. and activities for children. Sto- ing a network of reading clubs, Yet by this transition year, 78% ries celebrate traditional story- and raising public awareness of Grade 4 children cannot read telling and local authors, proof the importance of reading. for meaning in any language. mote African values, and reflect Since 2012, Nal’ibali has trained One key problem is lack of ac- readers’ lived experiences. All 21 084 people. 4 154 reading cess to high-quality, high-inter- content is bilingual (English and clubs are active across the coun- est reading material - especially another language). It is available try, reaching 120 656 children. storybooks - in children’s moth- in 8 of 11 national languages. The supplement is an effec- er tongue. 58% of homes have 33.8 million copies have been tive, cost-effective innovation no leisure books, and only 7% of distributed since 2012. At pres- well-suited to scale or replication. homes have >10 books. Just 17% ent, 57% are given free to At $0.11-$0.28 per copy (variable of schools have a stocked library; reading clubs, schools, librar- distribution cost), it can increase many stay locked, have unsuit- ies and community organisa- access to reading material quick- able titles, or do not loan books. tions, and 43% are distributed ly and affordably. Its bilingual Reading culture is also a chal- in Tiso Blackstar newspapers. format is relevant across Africa, lenge: only 35% of adults who live where most children don’t learn with children read aloud to them. An external evaluation recent- in their mother tongue. Its reg- ly showed that demand is high; ular release supports reading Nal’ibali’s bilingual read- use is high; and the supplement habit formation, and its format ing-for-enjoyment newspaper is supporting behaviour change, supports taking books home. It supplement is a 16-page, full-co- although targeting of distribu- is also used by adults, and can lour resource for reading club lead- tion channels could improve. spread advocacy messages. ers, teachers, caregivers and chil- The supplement is part of Nal’iba- dren. It is released every 2 weeks li’s national reading-for-enjoy- It costs ~$30 000 to add a new during school terms (15x a year). ment campaign. It works in part- translation for 1 year. To scale, Each edition includes 3 stories (2 nership with the Department of Nal’ibali would also need local can be cut and folded to make a Basic Education and other actors. distribution/implementation book); activity suggestions for Through advocacy, training, part- partners, and support for a sub- teachers and caregivers; motivati- nerships, media campaigns and grant model.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 64 Organisation: Nal’ibali Trust Organisation: Université de Lomé BASSAREX Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] APP Mobile app with unique program for learning to read Togo

The two main problems are the the lessons follow a progressive Mayer’s multimedia design the- adult illiteracy and the school order adapted to a first learning of ory to the didactics of the al- performance of children due to the reading. This is consistent with phabet, thus associating each the fact that they can not read the main purpose of our applica- letter with its pronunciation to and write in their mother tongue. tion, which is to get the learner to allow the user to learn the al- Although the Speakers want to first identify the letters and num- phabet under the same condi- learn to read and write, they face bers and then reproduce them in tions as the visual vocabulary. certain constraints. Adults have different forms. Once this goal is The transition from one exercise trouble finding a common time achieved, the learner will be able series to another is marked by a slot to learn their language, be- to read any document based on feedback which depends on the cause of the different activities what he has already learned. score achieved in a given exercise. of each other. For children, the government is unable to estab- The method of presentation of When the software is fully devel- lish a language policy for the elements of the alphabet is the oped, we will take the test to na- teaching of NAMC and many oth- pictorial method of letters which tive speakers. After this test, we er local languages despite the consists of treating a letter as will integrate any changes before importance of mother tongues. an image. This method consists moving to the final version that more precisely of designing a will be distributed and installed The didactic content of our Bas- didactic page for each element on Android phones or tablets. The sarex application follows the log- of the alphabet, where these el- next step will be to design appli- ic of the syllabic method which ements appear in close-up like cations for the other languages of consists in starting first with the images. Its main advantage is to the country, on the same model, letters of the alphabet, and asso- get the learner to focus on one in order to facilitate the coordina- ciating them with each other to element at a time, reducing the tion of digitized learning of moth- form syllables and then words. opportunities for distraction. This er tongues. The interest of this method is that method also allows us to apply

65 Africa Education Innovations Handbook EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, INCLUSIVE EDUCATION, OTHERS

HRST Department, African Union Commission 66 EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, ROGER Email: [email protected] INCLUSIVE EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY OTHERS Inclusion for hearing impaired students in the classroom using technology Ghana

In Africa , children who are born around his neck. The transmitter lows children without hearing deaf or with hearing impairment, picks up the teacher’s speech and impairments and those with a are children who are automati- transmits it directly into the hear- hearing disability to attend the cally dumbed and excluded from ing-impaired child who hears same schools, the same class- the regular education system be- it clearer and clearer in his ear; es (creation of inclusive class- cause appropriate services that therefore, he or she understands es) and allows children with can help those children to speak better the lessons in classroom. hearing loss to have the same and develop normally like all oth- The child can also adjust the vol- chances of academic learning er children do not exist on the ume to make it more comfort- and success as all other children. continent. The fact that those chil- able. Roger kit microphones are The following kit is required dren do not have access to spoken synchronized with hearing aids. in order to provide a child language systematically excludes The other students in the class- or children with Roger tech- them from entering mainstream room can use one of these micro- nology in a school class: classes from a normal course of phones to ask questions to the 1) A hearing aid for the deaf or education. Even hearing impaired teacher or to the child; and the hard of hearing child; 2) Rog- children whose hearing loss is not child with the hearing disabili- er transmitter for the teacher or so important are prevented from ty will hear all the questions and any other instructors; 3) A Rog- entering mainstream classes. understand them, as well as the er receiver built into the hearing various interactions between the instrument or attached to the Roger technology is a frequency other students and the teach- hearing instrument; 4) A set of modulation (FM) system that is er through his hearing aid. For microphones to be made avail- made for speech transmission. round table discussions, the child able to other students in the In order for Roger technology to can use the same transmitter as class; 5) A Roger charger to reg- work properly, the child with the a directional microphone and ularly charge the transmitter. hearing impairment must neces- zoom in on the person he wants sarily wear a compatible hearing to hear better in his ear. This fa- In addition to the Roger’s Kit, a aid equipped with a Roger re- cilitates understanding of the professional computer and hear- ceiver. The teacher who gives the knowledge taught, lessons and ing aid fitting software are also lecture or who animates the ed- interactions during school and required by the hearing care pro- ucational activities in classrooms extracurricular group activities. fessional for any necessary ad- must suspend the transmitter In summary, this technology al- justments.

67 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Kabakoo KABAKOO Email: [email protected]

Learning through wondering

Mali

Our solution consists in giving no educators, no trainers, no for local knowledge. Similarly, local the local population an oppor- students, only wonderers. At engineering practices and knowl- tunity for project-based learning Kabakoo, wonderers collabora- edge used in the informal sectors with a strong experiential focus. tively learn and work towards tend to be seen as less valuable. Kabakoo is an open school for lo- the development of innova- Hence, the problem we address is cally-grounded technology and tive solutions to local problems. the apparent disconnect between innovation. We are an inclusive Kabakoo’s key defining features technology education and local space offering opportunities to are ecological sustainability and problems. Kabakoo aims at solv- learn and experience innova- inclusiveness. Ecological sustain- ing the lack of locally-grounded tion to a diverse range of peo- ability is reflected even in our technology education in Africa. ple. We define ourselves as open architecture with local materi- school since we welcome every als built with the ancient African The first House Of Wondering society member who is willing technique of the Nubian vault was launched in May 2018 in to engage in our learning and and the use of upcycled furniture. Bamako. And we are already training activities. Following the In terms of inclusiveness, Kaba- noticing an increased demand precepts of place-based learn- koo is located in a typical low-infor our model of technolo- ing, Kabakoo aims at unraveling come neighborhood where the gy and innovation education. the links between technology majority of the population in Afri- Since Kabakoo explores how to and an improved quality of life. can cities actually live. Moreover, address socioeconomic challeng- Kabakoo inclusively welcomes es by simultaneously leveraging Kabakoo means “to wonder” or wonderers notwithstanding locally-grounded knowledge and “to be amazed” in the Baman- their educational background. state-of-the-art tech, its goals and an language from West Africa. Technology education in our Af- mission meets the aspirations of The act of “wondering” takes a rican contexts happens in the the Continental Education Strat- centerpiece in our structure be- midst of an epistemicide. Since egy for Africa which calls, among cause of its importance in the technology and innovation are others, for the promotion of local process of growing knowledge. In social practices, learning in such a knowledge and more practical in- fact, the ancient Greeks as well as context is bound to value mimic- novation training leading to cre- Bamanan mythology from West ry over creativity which is howbe- ativity. This further shows that the Africa teach us that “wondering” it paramount for solving human concept of Kabakoo – The House is the beginning of discovery and problems. These habits of imita- of Wondering is fully scalable to knowledge. At Kabakoo, there are tion can be linked to a disregard other African contexts.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 68 Organisation: Kabakoo ÉCOLES Org: Action contre la sècheresse Email: [email protected] LUMIÈRES Email: [email protected] Model schools for entrepreneurship based education Niger

The establishment of a financially an employer employing oth- tated the urgency of this rap- self-sufficient educational insti- er members of his community. prochement to the extent that tution ”Ecoles Lumières” which These schools enlighten through too great a distance between the must know how to balance the education and business training two milieus was rightly or wrong- teaching of a vast study program while illustrating how the teach- ly designated as one of the main and the desire to maximize the ing of a productive know-how sources of the growing difficulties profit generated by the entre- helps the development of skills of young people to the active life. preneurial activities within the required in the labor market. Ecoles Lumières will offer an institutions themselves schools One of the main advantages of entrepreneurial curriculum, in- will coordinate the teaching of the Ecoles Lumières is that it of- corporating existing standard or traditional school branches and fers students the opportunity to government programs, to ensure the management of small ag- receive an empirical education. that teaching materials are appro- ricultural school enterprises. Empirical education is consid- priate and beneficial to students. School businesses will be an op- ered a very effective teaching portunity for students to develop method for the acquisition of This program includes: entrepreneurial know-how and technical know-how and the The revision of national / stan- business acumen, which will help assimilation of critical-think- dard education programs; Creat- them, when they finish school, ing and experiential subjects. ing lesson plans for each academ- find a job more easily or start their ic subject with learning solutions own business. The different skills The reason given for the recent that incorporate entrepreneurial coordinate a cognitive and motor modernization of the education concepts and local examples; know-how with professional atti- system for technical and voca- The establishment of a teaching tudes and values. By combining tional training in particular is the structure for each academic sub- all this, schools seek to develop need for a rapprochement be- ject; and Improvement of teach- a foundation of holistic skills and tween school and business, the ing methods. aim to make a student a “”rural “”rise in youth unemployment””. entrepreneur””, and eventually, during the same period had dic-

69 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: SDELI Org: Mega Arts Pluz Nigeria Email: [email protected] TUTORS Email: [email protected] TEMPLATE Mobile application to support teaching Nigeria

Our Innovation seeks to address Tutors Template calibrates and market place and test run/launch the death of quality, reliable, fast tracks the teaching sensibil- in Nigeria.Tutors Template will be Culture friendly, Educational re- ities of Tutors so as to improve available online,on CDs and mo- source that is Teacher targeted, learning ability of pupils.Tutors bile Tablet platforms.It will be on oriented and directed in Nigeria/ Template Apps contains,diverse mobile platform for subscription Africa, lacking in E-learning capac- Access to Curriculum Resource,E- as well as Bookshops,IT shops,on- ity.Tutors Template (TT) will ad- du-Games,Proactive Classroom line platforms.Tutors Template dress this gap by being a bridge Methodologies and Scorecard Tablets with preinstalled Apps builder and game changer in con- which is a self assessment mod- will be powered by sound cloud. temporary world of educational ule for Tutors.TT is the ultimate learning platforms for teachers. game changer in today’s world Tutors Template will add val- To enhance capacity of teach- of E-Training for Tutors.It is cul- ue to e-learning resources for ers where their training is in- ture/teacher friendly,afford- Educators.It will reduce use of adequate by providing a wide able and inclusive in line with hard copy textbooks which is spectrum of training tools and SDGs.TT’s slogan is, ‘Empowered cumbersome and thus make content. TT will make teach- teachers,Excellent pupils,Sus- teaching/learning fun,interac- ing easier,fun,help plan les- tainable Education in Africa.TT tive and updating.TT 360 De- son notes better, and make the will be developed by Seasoned grees will update the capacity of classroom a hub of interesting Educationists,IT Content devel- teachers and make it easier for learning for teachers and pupils. opers and Creatives.It will provide them to plan lesson notes better To have better teachers for im- jobs forYouths,Teachers,Tutors, and also keep them abreast with proved pupils. Marketers and Creatives.It will be the latest E-learning resources sold through Mobile/Online plat- globally through online/mobile Tutors Template 360 Degrees forms as well as MP3s, CD/DVDS. platforms.Tutors Template 360 is a Digital, Mobile/Online Ed- It is an innovation that is yet to degrees will be valuable educa- ucators Empowerment tool, to be tested in the market at the tors resource that will be scaled train,update,upgrade and holisti- moment,however we hope that up to other Sub Saharan African cally enhance the capacity of En- investors,NGOs,Educational bod- countries by interfacing with ed- glish and Mathematics Teachers ies and Governments will buy ucational needs and gaps of edu- from 1st to 6th grade in Nige- into it and subsidize it for their cators in the countries. rian/African primary schools. students when we bring it to the

HRST Department, African Union Commission 70 Organisation: SDELI SDELI Email: [email protected]

Promoting Deaf Literacy through the Documentation of Indigenous Signed Language Using Technology Innovation and Early Intervention Nigeria

terials and in softcopy applica- Over 75% of hearing loss in chil- ong deaf and hearing signers, tions such as phone memory dren (from birth to age 5) in Ni- teachers of deaf children, fam- cards, CDs, etc. The expected geria is caused by preventable ilies and legislators, the impact outcomes of this project include health challenges. Children that of which includes an increased but not limited to the following: become deaf at this age have knowledge of the problem and an 75% of children with hearing loss little or no access to signed lan- increased expectation of the solu- in Nigeria (those that became deaf guage, first because over 95% of tion, which is the documentation from age 0 to 5) will have access to them are born by hearing parents of indigenous Nigerian Sign Lan- language and a proper cognitive with no signed language knowl- guage for Deaf education and the development and linguistic com- edge, and second, because there implementation of early interven- petence like their hearing peers. is no early intervention program tion program for deaf children. in place to facilitate early liter- Documenting indigenous Nige- acy acquisition through an in- We will document the indigenous rian signed language varieties digenous signed language. This Nigerian Sign Language using using technology innovation and population of deaf children ex- technology innovation and make distributing the documentation periences language deprivation the signed language materials materials to families of deaf chil- that results in very poor cognitive available to families of deaf children through early intervention development and linguistic in- dren through Early Intervention program is one sure way to pro- competence that negatively im- program so that deaf children will vide language access to over 75% pacts their lives into adulthood. have access to signed language Nigerian deaf children with little in the early child development or no access to signed language In our four years of operation, we stage. We will also propose legis- in their critical development age. have sought to solve the prob- lation for the indigenous Sign It is one sure way to promote lem of Deaf literacy in Nigeria by Language to be used in Schools cognitive development, literacy addressing the root cause of the for the Deaf across the country acquisition and linguistic compe- matter, which is the promoting in place of the current Signed tence among deaf children in Ni- Deaf literacy through the indig- English version that hardly rep- geria and other African countries enous signed languages and the resents the culture of Nigerian with similar situation. Every deaf implementation of early inter- deaf community. Our documen- community in Africa has the po- vention program. We are current- tation materials will be made tential of having their indigenous ly creating a huge awareness am- available online, in hardcopy ma- languages documented.

71 Africa Education Innovations Handbook Organisation: Aide et Action Intl. Org: The Grandmother Project Email: [email protected] GRANDMOTHER Email: PROJECT [email protected] Integrating positive cultural values in schools Senegal

The 2014 National Conference and collaboration between teach- cess rate at national level was on Education concluded that ers and communities; To increase 57%, in the Kolda Region it was “the Senegalese school system parents’ and grandparents’ in- 57% and in the IPCVS intervention should produce citizens who are volvement in children’s education. area it was an impressive 75%. rooted in their cultural, spiritual Key IPCVS activities are: The very positive exam results are and moral values.” This concern Teacher workshops: grand- mainly due to: increased mutu- has been articulated by nation- mother-teacher workshops; De- al respect and collaboration be- al educational authorities, the velopment of teaching materi- tween schools and communities. primary and secondary school als on positive cultural values; Families and communities across curricula give very limited atten- Grandmothers as teachers in Senegal are profoundly con- tion to cultural values and tradi- classrooms; Story telling eve- cerned about the loss of cultural tions. Parents are convinced that nings and contests; Intergenera- identity and values in children. they should send their children tional community forums. The IPCVS program review stat- to school but they are concerned ed: “The IPCVS model can be used that the positive cultural values IPCVS is implemented in 54 pri- throughout Senegal and in other that they cherish are not taught mary and 3 secondary schools, countries”. Ministry of Education in those schools. In close collab- with 8,256 pupils, 239 teach- official, Mme. Mbodj, stated, “We oration with Velingara District ers and 156 grandmothers. would like to see this program Education Office, Grandmother Results of IPCVS: In 2015, an ex- used in schools across Senegal. Project – Change through Cul- ternal review of IPCVS conclud- ture (GMP), developed an in- ed that ICPVS contributed to: We believe that the innovative novative program “Integrating improved attitudes of commu- IPCVS strategy can be scaled up positive cultural values into nities toward schools; increased within Senegal and adapted for schools” (IPCVS). The program school enrollment; decreased use in other African countries. goal is to improve the quality of drop-out of girls; improved be- Across Africa there is concern education for children by mak- havior of children with peers about the loss of cultural iden- ing it more culturally relevant. and family; and decreased child tity and values among younger marriage and teen pregnancy. generations. Scaling up depends Objectives of IPCVS are to: Positive 2017 exam results: Re- mainly on the commitment of To integrate positive cul- sults of the primary school com- national educational officials to tural values into schools; pletion exam show very positive make school more culturally rel- To strengthen communication results of IPCVS. The exam succ- evant.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 72 LE FOYER Organisation: Aide et Action Intl. Email: [email protected] ARDENT Inclusive space for supporting students with learning difficulties Senegal

Le Foyer Ardent: an inclusive and 2) Improve the conditions for the gou) and low school outcomes participatory model of school preparation of lessons by teachers (thresholds of MSc in Mathemat- support. It is a space equipped 3) Increase the learning time of pu- ics 22% and 35.3% and Read- and equipped with furniture pils, especially girls (relatively free ing 82.5% and 32.7%). This sit- and a kit of solar lighting, to wel- from certain domestic activities) uation is prevalent due to the come, in the evening, pupils with 4) Strengthen synergies between illiteracy of parents, the lack learning difficulties and to bring actors in the educational com- of lighting and monitoring of them a school support and an munity: individual and collective school children by families, and educational catch-up in mathe- commitment of parents, associa- the inexperience of teachers. matics and reading with the sup- tions of mothers of pupils and in- Le Foyer Ardent intends to fill port from community reporters. teractions between parents and the gap of the absence of a con- It is set up by the School Man- teachers for student follow-up. duisive environment for revision agement Committee under of school work at night for the the supervision of the Direc- Le Foyer Ardent is designed for families deprived of electricity. tor. The beneficiary students elementary school students, are identified according to their but it remains an inclusive The model of Le Foyer Ardent is performance after level tests. space open to middle school easily replicable as its implemen- students, Koranic school chil- tation relies primarily on local re- The experiment allowed us to: dren and the community (liter- sources. Technical resources are 1) Improve student performance acy and community meetings) provided by teachers and com- in reading (+5.6 points for girls Tests were conducted in two re- munity trainers. In addition the and 6 points for boys), and math- gions of Senegal, characterized costs related to the implemen- ematics (+10.1 points for girls and by low enrollment rates (GER: tation of hangars or buildings, +12.4 points for boys) between 73.9% in Tambacounda), espe- booths and solar kit remain ac- 2016 and 2017 for both regions cially for girls (IPS: 0.94 in Kedou- cessible to communities.

73 Africa Education Innovations Handbook TOA NAFASI Organisation: The Toa Nafasi Project Email: [email protected] PROJECT Supporting students with learning difficulties through a public-private partnership Tanzania

administrators, observe each stu- The education sector in Tanzania king within the government dent for social behaviours, adap- faces a number of challenges to school system in Tanzania, where tive abilities and motor skills, and addressing the individual learn- the majority of schoolchildren test them for literacy, numeracy, ing needs of students, particular- are enrolled. We offer a unique and cognitive skills in order to ly those with learning difficulties. and innovative approach to sup- establish their baseline aptitude. While overt physical and mental port students who are in dan- Referral—Our referral system disabilities are starting to gain ger of being left behind due utilizes local health profession- recognition, less quantifiableto their learning difficulties. als to treat those pupils who learning impediments remain are struggling due to med- mostly unidentified. With a lim- The Project strives to improve ical or psychosocial issues. ited understanding of the subtle learning outcomes for all stu- and complex needs of students dents in Grades One and Two Our program is designed so with learning difficulties, teachers but our focus is on the most that it can be introduced into and parents often perceive such vulnerable learners. We do not any public primary school in the children as having behavioural deviate from the national syl- country. Ultimately, the goal is to issues. Consequently, these stu- labi mandated by the Ministry be in all Tanzanian public prima- dents are often unable to fully par- of Education but rather ensure ry schools so students who need ticipate in and benefit from their that everyone in the class has assistance can easily access it. education, entering a lifetime of an equal opportunity to learn. The Project works in four schools marginalization and exclusion. We work with teachers and par- in the Kilimanjaro Region of ents to identify which students Northern Tanzania and we will The Toa Nafasi Project addresses are struggling, what the cause(s) expand to another five schools this situation by using its pub- might be and how best to help in 2019, making a total of nine lic-private partnership with the them. Our three-tiered approach schools with 27 total tutors and Tanzanian government and lo- of assessment, referral and curric- around 1000 children. This will cal communities to provide sup- ulum modification has enabled be the beginning of a consistent port for struggling students, significant development andand on-going expansion process their parents and families, and improvement in students found where we expect to eventually the teachers and administrators to be struggling in the early occupy schools in every district within the public school system. grades of public primary schools. of Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro Region The Project is an educational pro- Assessment—The Project’s staff, and, eventually, every region in gram (not a separate facility) wor- with the cooperation of school Tanzania.

HRST Department, African Union Commission 74 Another Expo is coming

Organisation: The Toa Nafasi Project Email: [email protected] INNOVATING EDUCATION IN AFRICA EXPO 2019

The African Union Commission appreci- ates the offer of the Republic of Botswana to host the next Innovating Education in Africa Expo 2019 to celebrate Education Innovations in Africa. Editorial Team

Dr. Beatrice Khamati Njenga Head of Education Division at the De- partment of Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Commission. She believes that Innovat- ing Education in Africa is at the centre of CESA’s implementation, as education MUST remain relevant in the face of rapid societal changes, to which it needs to adapt, and yet at the same time influence change.

Mr. Nicholas Ouma Mr. Mich-Seth Owusu Senior Youth Advisor at the Depart- Program Officer at the Department ment of Human Resources, Science and of Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Com- Technology of the African Union mission. Commission. CONTACT US

Rosevelt Street, Old Airport Area P. O. Box 3243 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

+ 251 11 518 2056

[email protected]