Final school installations & the importance of attendance

As the programme continues to gain momentum, the field team worked tirelessly to ensure the last of the school installs were completed. The schools, located in the Uasin Gishu region, were visited by the team to network the ICT equipment, complete the installations and to answer any remaining questions. Completing the deployment and installation phase is a significant milestone for the programme and for everyone involved – well done all!

It hasn’t all been plain sailing this month though. It’s been a real challenge to obtain consistent attendance records as a few schools were recording attendance for some days and not for others. To counter this, the field team had to revisit the schools to educate the teachers, with the aim to ensure they were engaged and understood the importance of taking attendance. We’ve seen excellent progress as we’re now up to 120,000+ children who regularly use their smartcard for attendance – an excellent achievement so far.

It’s extremely important that the teachers learn to take attendance every day, as we have already seen how it can be used for reasons beyond the classroom. We were informed via a message that was posted on our online community wall, that a teacher – after hearing a news report of children being kidnapped in the Sultan Hamud area on the radio - had used the attendance tablet and smartcards to check whether or not his students had been kidnapped. Accompanied by the children’s parents, the teacher used the technology to take attendance and identify who was absent - and potentially in danger. Before iMlango, the teacher wouldn’t have had any knowledge of who was - or should have been - in their class…

Until next time,

The iMlango team

195 primary schools equipped with eLearning centres

The following is a post from Camara Education.

We are delighted to announce that Camara Kenya have now completed all computer dispatches for the iMlango programme, with fully functioning computer labs now set up in all 195 schools.

The Camara Kenya team have worked tirelessly over the last few months preparing the schools for the arrival of the computers. Setting up the classrooms has been no easy task with schools needing their electricity supply checked, new wiring put in place and in some cases furniture, such as chairs and tables sourced. Once the schools were fully prepared the team set out dispatching the IT equipment, often travelling long distances to reach rural schools across several regions in Kenya. Camara Kenya’s work however has only just began, with their next task to provide instruction for over 2000 teachers, so that they may be able to use the technology effectively in their classrooms.

Several pilot schools in the iMlango programme are also now fully operational, with the remainder of the schools due to start up later this year. Class and school attendance are being tracked and reported on in these schools. Even more groundbreaking, is that each child’s performance is being monitored, allowing for the first time, live progress monitoring across the entire intervention.

“The introduction of iMlango has come at the right time especially during this time of technology in the 21century. By integrating ICT in schools, it will help learning to be real and enjoyable reducing truancy in schools. Teachers will also get the opportunity to get more information from the internet thus giving pupils the content they need.” Monicah Robi Mokenye, Kenyan teacher

The iMlango programme is a hugely exciting initiative and one which we are extremely proud to be part of. It is a shining example of what can be achieved when charities and businesses come together.

UNESCO Mobile Learning Week Symposium

We were honoured to attend the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week Symposium this month. The event was held in Paris, France, and brought together the leading industry minds to explore the topic of leveraging technology to empower women and girls. The event was attended by 1000+ participants, included 100+ speakers and 70+ countries were represented. The opening keynote speaker, Cherie Blair, delivered a powerful talk to begin the event, and the subject of innovative technology was discussed in great detail by experts in a series of workshops and talks.

We were delighted to also be given an exhibition stand for the duration of the event, which we used to promote the programme, demo the technology and provide more information to interested individuals. UNESCO Mobile Learning Week provided an excellent opportunity for us to engage with other organisations that are operating programmes throughout the world, and to hear many of the fascinating thought-provoking talks from the experts. We had a great time at the event and want to thank UNESCO for inviting us!

Meanwhile, on the ground in Kenya, iMlango continued its rollout into the schools. Teachers attended a 5 day instruction on iMlango, which went through attendance monitoring and the interactive learning platform. At the end of the 5 days, the teachers were awarded a certificate of instruction. And the training is definitely working as the daily attendance transactions are increasing, day by day. We’re now up to 255,000 transactions a week – keep your eyes peeled for the data reports, they’re coming.

Until next time, 
The iMlango team