“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

The following is a post from Svetlana Tarassova – Whizz Education.

Dear iMlango followers!

iMlango teams have been busy planting!

As you can see the project is in its full roll out phase. After the successful completion of ‘Training of the Trainer’ courses, our Trainers, who are full time practicing iMlango teachers in participating schools, are now busy transferring to other teachers their knowledge, experience, enthusiasm and most importantly passion to make the difference. “I want to become the best iMlango champion in Kenya” – is the phrase we so happily receive as feedback. The sceptic inside you may exclaim: “Oh, those are just empty words. I’ve heard them so many times but never seen anything happen”. Well, you are in for the surprise of a lifetime. The iMlango programme, supported by DFID, is where a professionally thought through process, based on vast experience and knowledge of running successful implementations comes into play.

Remember “judgment by the seeds you plant”? iMlango trainers and teachers are empowered with technology, knowledge and tools to make a difference. The ability to facilitate individualised learning for each of their pupils through scheduling, monitoring and acting upon live accurate data allows progress. True professionalism from each of our teachers, who are vigorously supported by their head teachers, will find ways to overcome challenges. During the training the ethos was formed that if you meet an obstacle you go left, right, over and under it. They are on their way to succeed in never closing that door to the House of Knowledge, in ensuring that technology enables learning and that each child is given an opportunity to learn according to his/her individual ability and need.

Before we can harvest, we still need to grow. We need to foster with love, care and determination. iMlango teams are on the ground, they are in the classrooms, in the labs as well as in the offices around the world supporting this programme, each step of the way. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but together we will make a difference in the classrooms and provide a better education for Kenyan children.

The iMlango Report

The following is a post from, Changez Ndzai, Vetting Officer at Camara Kenya.

iMlango is still making huge strides here in Kenya. The month of April is usually a month where most schools here in Kenya break for holidays but this hasn't stopped the project from moving forward. The Camara Kenya team, has been on the move to make sure every aspect of the project, especially technical proportions, are running smoothly and according to plan. In Kilifi county, about five schools have already been signed off. This means these schools are now meeting all iMlango requirements.

Progress is still being made in other counties like Kajiado, Makueni and Uasin Gishu, and our technical team has been busy in the field doing much of the installation works. This means by the beginning of the second term, everything will be in place for the students to begin training. Camara and Whizz in the past two weeks have been organising and conducting ‘Training of Trainers’ workshops, both here in Mombasa and Nairobi respectively. About seventy one (TOTs) have been undergoing training, and are expected to be able to pass on this knowledge and train other teachers back in their respective schools after the April holiday.

I got to spend some time with some of the teachers who were attending the one week training workshop here in our Mombasa Hub, and I managed to ask them what were they were expecting to get out of the training. There is a great excitement and happiness among the participants to be part of this programme as well as it being an opportunity to develop their IT skills. iMlango will shine a technological light on most of the schools that are situated in remote areas, where they would not usually be accustomed to such resources. It is a special gift to these schools, as one of the teacher’s explained to me, they never knew when this type of technology would reach them in the remote areas out of town as computers and other related technologies are more commonly found in towns.

Also, the training has given them another developing platform, opening their eyes to new technological experiences. Not only will this help them teach the school curriculum at a new interactive level but they also will be apply these skills in their day to day activities as society is also changing in accordance with technology. So this means iMlango will have a huge impact, not only for the students but also for the teachers and their communities.

Until next time,
The iMlango team

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