World Bank Report warns of Crisis in Kenya’s Education System

In October, the Daily Nation newspaper in Kenya ran an article in which the senior education specialist from the World Bank was quoted as saying that children going through the Kenyan education system are losing an estimated three years of education.

The article read: “What this means is that a Kenyan child can expect to go to school for 11 years out of which they will only do learning worth eight years,” said the bank’s senior education specialist Huma Waheed at their offices in Nairobi. “When years of schooling are adjusted for quality of learning, this is only equivalent to 7.8 years, a learning gap of 2.9 years. This means Kenyan school-going children are having a learning loss of close to three years. Going to school doesn’t mean that children are learning and this is mainly because of the quality of education,” she added. To read the full Daily Nation article, please click here.

After six years of working intensely with some 4,000 teachers in over 200 of Kenya’s rural marginalised schools, we have a good understanding of the challenges faced by teachers and by an education system which struggles to cope with limited budgets and huge class sizes. iMlango has been investing in learning tools for children and in helping teachers teach, with focus especially on mathematics and literacy.

One of our aims is to help ensure that children in these communities grow up as natives in the digital economy, articulate and equipped for taking advantage of and contributing to the productivity opportunities that the sector can bring. Over the years, we have seen some great steps forward in the schools, and we are especially pleased with some of the advances in literacy that children are making.

The reality is that it’s not just about the role of the teachers, but the whole community in being advocates of education, with parents ensuring children are in school. We work to raise the understanding of these issues with real data, as well as making sure that teachers have the tools to help children learn.

Adam Smith, Chief Executive, sQuid

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Reflections from the 9th Annual mEducation Alliance Symposium

The mEducation Alliance Symposium in Washington, D.C. always provides opportunity to learn from others and to examine how our iMlango programme is working in the wider context of digital innovation in learning.

Reflecting on the opening comments at this year’s symposium, which included contributions from USAID and the African Union Commission, as well as some of the interesting and varied approaches showcased at the forum, it is true that ‘Digital’ really is everywhere, with countless partnerships and innovations being applied across the education spectrum, solving challenges as diverse as attendance monitoring; teacher capacity development; inspiring learners to learn, and; overcoming barriers to inclusion and access. As the USAID keynote speaker Julie Cram said today, innovation makes the impossible possible, and the unsolvable solvable.

Photo Credit: mEducation Alliance

Low cost mobile-enabled technologies are improving education outcomes in the developing world and reaching the most marginalised children. Technology is enabling Teachers to become facilitators of digital learning, and digital skills are increasingly recognised as being as important as reading, writing, and mathematics.

Much of what we are trying to achieve in iMlango resonates with these exciting developments, and particularly that digital technology can be used to help deliver an agile mindset. Our work with teachers and through them with the children in our iMlango communities encourages new ways of learning, and provides access to wonderful learning resources like reading books and digital encyclopaedia to help enquiring minds. We encourage in-school gender-balanced engagement by young learners through working together to participate in our regular iMlango Junior Debaters competition, creating a forum for reasoned argument and clear thinking. We will keep working to try to create that agile mindset in all the students and teachers that we support.

Adam Smith, Chief Executive, sQuid

iMLANGO JUNIOR DEBATERS CONTEST: STOP PRESS!!!

Season 3, Round 3: RESULTS!

The final round of the hit Arimus Media TV show schools’ spin-off, the iMlango Junior Debater’s Contest, is now complete, and the results are in!

As ever, the children have worked as teams to respond to the competition’s Round 3 motion, boosting their literacy, communication and research skills, as well as enhancing their self-esteem. In Round 3, 14 groups (each of 5 children, all from Standard 7) responded, representing an incredible 93%. The competition to be overall season winner was hot!

The motion facing the students this time was: “Gender equality is important - what can we do to ensure we achieve it? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.”

Challengebreakers, from Mwangutwa Primary School strongly agreed, citing the work of great women such as conservationist Wangari Maathai and Kenya’s first lady, Margaret Kenyatta, and the kindness of Mother Teresa. “We want to say that every living person should strive to support gender equality” they postulated, although while they gave thanks that pro-gender equality legislation is now in place, they felt its implementation is lacking. They also warned against “placing unqualified personnel in positions in the name of gender equality”, stating that balance is needed. They summed up: “In a nut-shell, gender equality is important and through thick and thin we should strive towards its realisation for the world to be a better dwelling place”.

Seagul group, from Boarder Farm Primary School argued very strongly in favour: “Women should no longer be looked at as inferior to men and weak sex of human race, everyone is equal. There is need for removal of obstacles hindering women's participation in public and private life through ensuring women's full equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision making because this is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice”.

They stated that what is needed is law change to underpin rejection of traditional norms oppressing women and girls, alongside poverty-alleviating Government policies, for instance the introduction of microloans for carrying out income-generating businesses. They concluded: “We appreciate the government's effort to provide free primary and secondary education to all without favour of gender”

Students participating in the iMlango Junior Debaters Contest

Bata group, from Mwangutwa Primary School did not deviate. “Gender based discrimination against female children is pervasive across the world. It is seen in all the strata of society … the female child has been treated inferior to the male child and this is deeply engraved in their mind”. However, “sustainable development relies on ending discrimination towards women and providing equal opportunities for education and employment”.

They listed “twelve steps in order to achieve gender equality in our lifetimes”, which included “make education gender sensitive; raise aspirations of girls and their parents; get women into power”. They concluded that “in this world you may not know what is going to happen when you try, but … as we know unity is strength, and we are quite sure that we together as a country can achieve gender equality”.

Once again, the judges were very impressed by all the teams, but there had to be a winner. So in reverse order are:

Challengebreakers, with a fantastic 70%,

Seagul, with an incredible 75%,

And in first place, with a magnificent score of 78%....

SEASON WINNERS, 2019, BATA!!!

Huge congratulations to Bata, and to ALL the competing teams who made such a valuable contribution to the contest. Watch this space for details of the prize-giving ceremony, coming soon!

 Until next time,

The iMlango Team