Ambitious Education: Alternative Learning Methods and the Future of Education in Africa
Alternative learning methods and the future of education in Africa were on the agenda of the webinar held by Ambitious.Africa’s Education Team on the 25th of February.
State of Education: Changes, Struggles and Recovery post COVID-19
The first session of the webinar was moderated by Angelina Ngunja, Ambitious.Africa’s education team lead. It featured Kiko Muuo, CEO and Founder of Angaza Elimu, an education tech company that helps students to access quality education, together with Jente Rosseel CEO of Elewa Company, whose focus is on building training models to help students acquire basic STEM education to every first-grade student in the world. Both of the speakers and their companies are based in Kenya, which helped define the scope of the discussion.
The discussion started with Rosseel’s description of Kenya’s education system. The system is in a 3-6-3-3 model from pre-primary education to advanced level high school. Upon completion of those levels, students are then eligible to attend college studies. Kenya’s education system also changed the teaching curriculum from a knowledge-based form to a competency-based curriculum, which allows for students and their teachers to equally participate in the learning process.
In the context of the current situation, Rosseel highlighted that schools have closed as a result of the increasing spread of the COVID-19 virus in Kenya and around the world. The Kenyan government just like any other was not prepared to contain the coronavirus, therefore, decisions like these were the only solution that could guarantee the safety of students and their teachers.
Continued progress in controlling the spread of the coronavirus permitted the reopening of schools eight months later. Students are still expected to be ready for their final exams, and they have to prove mastery of the content at their class level. They also had to undergo a rushed learning process where the teachers were doing their best to catch-up on the lost study time and curriculum requirements, while at the same time ensuring that they are well prepared for their final exams.
When asked whether Africa is ready to pick the digital way of learning in this era, Muuo responded with positive figures around phone penetration in Kenya specifically smartphones, but the worry is still on the accessibility of internet connection. He also touched upon the problems that students from rural areas face as they do not have easy access to all these facilities. This was more relevant in the times when COVID-19 had forced the closure of all schools; there was an imbalance in the accessibility of remote learning facilities for students and not enough knowledge to navigate these systems for the teachers.
Rosseel commended the investment in Kenyan education, which is seen through different resources availed for students, but the question remains training on how to use all these for the teachers and the students themselves. He proposed reiterating Elewa’s main objective of providing training to teachers, who would then go on to share the knowledge with their students. The company provides innovations that help teachers to successfully achieve a human-centered learning approach even with the use of technology.
Investment in public education remains the goal for these companies. Both are working towards more accessible means of education where they are working on innovations that require little to no financial constraints especially for students from marginalized backgrounds.
Alternative Learning Methods
In the second session of the event, Michael Oscar, CTO of Trastea and member of the Ambitious.Africa Education Team, moderated the discussion. it featured different panelists of which was Sanna Lukander, a learning Ambassador at Fun Academy, Katarina Stensson, CEO of Checheza, Claire Mongeau, CEO of M-Shule, and Tonee Ndungu, CEO of Kytabu.
After a round of introductions setting the scene, Lukander kicked off the conversation by discussing possible definitions of alternative learning. It is clear that the concept might mean something different for different people from different backgrounds, especially that the panelists themselves have different approaches to the concept. The subsequent consensus among them was to keep the definition open so that the conversation encompasses the diverse ways they all think about alternative learning.
Stensson concurred and wanted to look at the topic through the lens of the historical changes that have been observed in education. The digital revolution brought new learning systems and improved old ones. She particularly commended methods like game-based learning and gamification which increase the engagement of the learning process. She also highlighted how our technological advancement is enhancing these methods and making them easier to implement. For instance, the development of the neuroscience of learning has gone a long way in improving the effectiveness of learning and memory function. Moreover, artificial intelligence can be a cost-efficient way for personalized teaching, as opposed to the traditional method of having a personal tutor.
That is right in Mongeau’s wheelhouse, whose work with M-Shule is about the accessibility of education in Kenya using A.I. Her platform, described as an SMS knowledge-building tool uses text messages to build students’ “mastery and understanding of literacy, numeracy and even life skills through a series of text message interaction” where the content gets harder as they go. The objective being “democratizing access to effective digital learning”. The platform helps students achieve greater interactions with their teachers, and it has a greater impact in helping students gain more understanding of the learning material. However, it has its challenges as 80% of Kenyans don’t have regular connectivity.
As for Ndungu, he redirected the focus of the discussion to how every platform should be more affordable, relevant, and accessible. His approach to alternative learning was that it always makes sense to tailor forms of learning according to where it is being delivered from, and who is receiving the education. It is the premise around which his company Kytabu revolves around. Ndungu also believes in the mobility and duplication of platforms, and that his company Kytabu is looking forward to scaling up to other countries around the world with a similar approach.
In light of having a sound and working education system, a focus on training facilitators and teachers needs to be adopted and the “This works!” program does exactly that. Lukander explained its functioning: “This works!” is a seven-week learning program designed for first graders, focusing on “developing technology skills and transversal competence”. It provides teachers with the necessary tools to help students around the world, combining different subjects and connecting them with developing life skills. It is freely available and every teacher can access it from their website so that they can try it out in their classes.
Measuring success in alternative learning comes in different forms. Panelists closed off by sharing their different ways of assessing their alternative learning methods. They also had strong recommendations for alternative learning initiatives. They encouraged them to form partnerships and collaborate with like-minded platforms, especially in the context of the current pandemic that has exposed the frailties of our current systems, which calls for finding sustainable alternatives, as Ndungu recalled.
More about the startups that were represented in the webinar:
Anganza Elimu: www.angazaelimu.com
Checheza: www.checheza.com
Elewa Company: www.elewa.education
Kytabu: www.kytabu.africa
M-Shule: www.m-shule.com
This works!: www.thisworks.fi
Not enough? Watch the highlights video from the webinar:
By: Neige Tresor Ikuzo