Promoting Access to Remote Learning during COVID-19: Ubongo’s Journey

Ubongo reaches millions of children in Africa through accessible technologies like radio, TV, and mobile phones.

Ubongo, meaning “brain” in Kiswahili, came to life in 2013 with the aim to help kids in Africa to learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives. Ubongo provides powerful edutainment solutions to make e-learning fun by using edu-cartoons and the power of media, like TV, radio, and mobile devices.

In 2013, a team of five motivated individuals set up a social enterprise, Ubongo – which means “brain” in Kiswahili – to support the continuity of learning for kids and improve their skills outside of school, through broadcast media in underserved communities in Tanzania.

They came up with locally-made cartoons that are available in audio-visual format, titled Akili and Me and Ubongo Kids, supplemented with printed materials, using the power of fun catchy original songs and storylines to create and deliver educational content to kids aged 0-14 years across Africa.

Little was known that six years on, a pandemic would throw millions of kids out of the classroom and force education policy makers to consider solutions for remote learning to ensure that learning never stops, like Ubongo’s dream.

“When COVID-19 pandemic came, it hit everyone by surprise but for us it was an opportunity to now put in more effort to be able to reach more kids because there were over 1.5 billion  learners who were out of school, remarks Tamala Maerere-Kateka, the Outreach and Communications Officer of Ubongo.

In response to the pandemic, Ubongo had made its content completely free to reach more children and encourage learning at home and by August 2020, Ubongo’s reach increased to include 20 more countries with Africa’s most popular locally-made, entertaining and educational cartoons that are available in 5 local languages.

Ubongo's content is available in 5 local languages.

Today, Ubongo is Africa’s leading producer of kids’ edutainment, reaching over 17 million families across 40 African countries through accessible technologies like TV, radio, and mobile devices. According to UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS6) recent analysis, television and radio broadcasts have the potential to reach a majority of the world’s children, indicating that broadcast media offers an effective way to reach millions of them to deliver education content.

Ubongo’s edutainment covers topics from pre-literacy, numeracy, STEM, art, life skills and social-emotional learning to promote social and behavioral change messages to kids, caregivers and educators. For example, one of its health topics teaches proper handwashing, which is very critical especially during this time.

The importance of parents' involvement in their children’s education cannot be overemphasized as research suggests that it boosts the well-being and confidence of children for academic progression. In addition to creating content for children, Ubongo  creates specially made content for parents and caregivers to empower them to support their children’s cognitive development and well-being at home through public service announcements, videos, social media tips, worksheets and more.

Ubongo creates specially made content for parents and caregivers to empower them to support their children.

Ubongo’s educational cartoons create measurable change in kids’ learning lives, as a 2016 impact evaluation study done by Dr. Dina Borzekowski at the University of Maryland, USA found that kids who watched Akili and Me outperformed children who watched other cartoons by 24% in numeracy, 13% in literacy, and 12% in school readiness after a month of daily viewing.

Indeed, there are real people with real names behind these results and one of them is 3-year-old Brightness from Dodoma, Tanzania who could count to 20 in Kiswahili and sing along to Akili and Me songs before starting preschool. Watching her daughter learn from Akili and Me encouraged Rehema, her mother, to find opportunities to learn along with her daughter and through the parental content that Ubongo creates to support parents.

Likewise, parents and caregivers who engage with Ubongo’s content are 12% more likely to read to their children than those who do not.

While this is exciting for them, Tamala says Ubongo is determined to grow its content library and distribution channels with an ambitious goal of scaling to impact over 60 million schoolchildren in Africa by 2025. As part of efforts to achieve this, Ubongo has started a fundraising campaign called #Learning4AllFund.

You can support this cause here with an assurance that 100% of donations go towards creating transformative edutainment to promote critical life skills, especially to those that need it the most.

With Ubongo, we can all hope that learning will never stop, and no child will be left behind.

By: Nana Afia Tenkoramaa, Project Manager – Storytelling at Ambitious.Africa