It’s been another busy month for the iMlango team - a raft of new content has been uploaded to the learning platform, significant progress has been made on our initiatives and we continued to register new students into the programme, with over 23,000 students registered since the start of the year.
Learning platform content
We’re very pleased to announce that new and interactive Standard 1 eBooks from our content partner, eKitabu, were added to the learning platform this month. This is in addition to new eBooks from our new content partner, Tusome. Meaning “Let’s read” in Kiswahili, Tusome is a collaboration between Kenya’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; the United States Agency for International Development; and the UK’s Department for International Development that aims to improve learning outcomes by providing literacy content for Standard 1 & 2 students, in English and Kiswahili. Students are now able to access the Tusome syllabus eBooks – with an accompanying guide book for teachers – and various African-focussed stories on the learning platform.
On a recent visit to one of our schools in Makueni County, it was clear to see iMlango’s impact on the students as they were connecting projectors to laptops with consummate ease and accessing the applicable subject in preparation for whole-class learning sessions. Students are also regularly assisting other students to troubleshoot basic ICT issues - demonstrating a significant overall improvement and application of ICT knowledge.
After school clubs & initiatives
There are now 167 iMlango schools with child clubs taking place after school. That equates to a total of 222 clubs, as some schools have more than one, and 84 schools that run girls only clubs. These clubs offer extra access to the learning platform and regularly discuss pertinent topics.
It’s evident that students simply cannot get enough of the content available on the learning platform. They are regularly accessing the ICT labs after school hours – although not part of a formal club – to read the African StoryBook stories, Life Skills content and Q-files’ online children’s encyclopaedia.
The support initiative is progressing well with over 100 local merchants on board to provide food and goods to families that need support. Each merchant is provided with an iMlango tablet to accept payment, and families are given a small amount which is distributed on an iMlango contactless payment smartcard.
UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2016
We were delighted to be invited back to this year’s UNESCO Mobile Learning Week event in Paris, France, where we were given the opportunity to share our experiences in analysing the large amount of attendance data captured in the field. It was a great turnout with over 70 people in the room for the presentation – a big thank you to all of you that could make it and we hope you enjoyed the talk.
Lastly, the team from the Global Business Coalition for Education spent a day with us at an iMlango school in Kajaido County, where they witnessed the excitement that iMlango has brought to the school and students. It was great to be able to share iMlango’s progress with another organisation, and you can read their blog on their time with us here.
Until next time,
The iMlango team