Implementing institution: Impact Network
Country: Zambia
Source: CEI
Execution period: 2009 - in progress
Plataforma de Prácticas Efectivas:
Maximize the potential benefits of e-learning in marginalized and vulnerable areas of Africa.
A ready-to-deploy kit with online materials, tablets, teacher training, and management tools.
After 18 months, participating students increase their math skills by 25%, and by 7% in reading compared to other schools.
The eSchool360 program offers schools a methodological set based on new information and communication technologies. It is an initiative of the NGO Impact Network that started with the construction of schools in rural areas of Zambia. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the methodological package was developed to give lines of action to existing schools.
eSchool360 aims to promote the use of new communication technologies among young people in vulnerable conditions. For this, the main innovation is in a kit that can be purchased by any school in Zambia. It consists of technological materials (projectors, tablets, computers), a practice-based class method in line with the official curriculum, a solar energy system and a playbook.
The eSchool360 curriculum (available in English and 8 national languages) is based on a practice-based learning system: children explore dimensions of the traditional curriculum and use it through numerical applications. These were developed in conjunction with the iSchool organization and Zambian teachers and were approved by the Ministry of Education. The eSchool360 program includes a training module for teachers to use and apply the methodology. It is complemented with weekly support given by professionals of the NGO. Sessions are done in class through small work groups: one half works with tablets while the other half participates in written work, games and activities with the teacher. Sessions are given during the day and each child attends a session, which lasts 40 minutes on average.
Zambia’s population is characterized by a high proportion of young people living in rural areas and with high levels of poverty. Children under 14 accounted for 46 per cent of the population in 2015 (the 15-24 age group 20 per cent); Rural areas account for 59% of Zambia’s population and 78.9% live below the national poverty line. The education system fails to change these trends, considering, for example, that only 55% of elementary school students reach the last grade (UNESCO). Although the government is clearly concerned about the issue, public spending on education remains low and represents, according to 2008 data, only 1% of national GDP.
Through a daily monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process, the NGO monitors the impact of the eSchool360 program in terms of increasing children’s math and reading skills. This is done by comparing the average results of the children involved with the national averages in the common tests. The results indicate that the program allows for a 25 percent increase in children’s mathematical skills and a 7 percent increase in reading skills. The cost of the eSchool360 package (US$3 per child per month) is lower than in public schools (2 to 10 times lower) and represents a very promising and economically interesting innovation to replicate.
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