Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Minkedu

One-line solution summary:

An online learning platform that strengthens the passion and quality of teaching of home (parents) and classroom educators.

Pitch your solution.

18 out of 20 students of different levels and ages have difficulties developing new learning experiences throughout their lives due to the lack of accessibility to education, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. There is a low support for the family to exercise their role as home educators and for teachers to generate didactics according to the reality of the students.

Minkedu is an online learning platform that strengthens the quality and passion for teaching of homeschoolers and classroom. We increase educational accessibility for children and young people from the educator's work through continuous online training with learning routes and content adapted by areas, levels and subjects.

By strengthening the joint work between parents and teachers, we will be able to increase the graduation rates of the school year, entry to higher education, and we will reduce the school dropout of millions of students, mainly in rural and peri-urban areas.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

18 out of 20 students of different ages and levels have difficulties in developing new learning experiences throughout the school year, especially in students in rural and peri-urban areas where school challenges are greater. More than 850 million children and young people - approximately half of the world's student population - remain away from schools and universities

Almost 80% of fathers, mothers of families have abandoned their role as educators in the home, the absence of fathers, mothers of families in the education of their children generates a negative impact on affective, social and cognitive development, especially in children during early and second childhood.

Adding to this problem the almost null training of teachers to create, adapt new teaching methodologies and didactics that respond to the needs, rhythms, learning styles and diversity of students, generate low motivation and school performance, leading to school dropout. , low rates of graduate students and low opportunities to continue higher studies.

Closing the gap between the school-home, teacher-parents and from the quality training of the educator in the classroom and at home, it is possible to impact the learning of the students to generate a quality and inclusive education

What is your solution?

Minkedu is an online learning platform that strengthens the quality and passion for teaching of homeschoolers and classroom. We reduce the lack of educational accessibility for children and young people from the work of the educator through continuous online training with learning routes and content adapted by areas, levels and subjects for the home and classroom.

By strengthening the joint work between parents and teachers, we will be able to increase the graduation rates of the school year, entry to higher education, and we will reduce the school dropout of millions of students, mainly in rural and peri-urban areas.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

From the permanent training of the educator in the classroom and at home, economic, educational and professional growth is achieved so that the educator does not abandon his passion for teaching, especially in rural and peri-urban areas.

Our homeschoolers (parents) have abandoned their role as homeschoolers, leaving such work to the school and teachers, parents are unable to provide effective accompaniment because the vast majority have not completed basic education in the same way the educator In the classroom, it is not able to generate new learning and teaching experiences due to the lack of adapted didactic resources and quality training to respond to the needs of the students. Thanks to our educational research process, we manage to know, experience and feel in the field of action the educational challenges that educators present daily, knowing these needs to allow adapting, creating and designing curricular content focused on the educational communities where the educator operates. Through the adaptation of teaching-learning methodologies and pedagogical models, Minkedu manages to respond to the educational needs presented by the educator in this way, we close the gap between the school-home, educator-parent in order to strengthen the emotional, cognitive and affective development of the students.

Which dimension of the TPrize Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Promote the assessment and recognition of skills developed outside the formal educational system

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the TPrize Challenge.

Minkedu is aligned with the TPrize Challenge under the objective of strengthening and supporting the homeschooler (parents) and classroom (teachers) with teaching and learning methodologies, tools and resources that help develop future skills for students. We are also aligned with the dimension Design, create and implement new educational or training models for educators and students that guarantee access to quality education in environments with low connectivity, mainly from the work of the educator at home and in the classroom.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Cochabamba, Bolivia

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

Minkedu has more than 7,200 users. We work at the Bolivian level and managed to benefit, under our educational social impact model, more than 2,650 educators (parents and teachers) in rural and peri-urban areas. We are currently operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia and our growth phase is aimed at scaling our educational social impact to strengthen the role of the educator in the home and classroom, connecting multiple teaching-learning experiences and first-level training adapted to each educational reality.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Andrés Quisbert

More About Your Solution

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new application of an existing technology

What makes your solution innovative?

At Minkedu we connect teaching experiences with the use of data and learning routes to strengthen the joint work between parents and teachers, in such a way that we can increase the graduation rates of the school year, admission to higher education and reduce the dropout rate of millions of students. Students mainly in rural and peri-urban areas from the family work as homeschoolers and teachers as classroom educators.

Under this approach, we reduce the gap between the family and the school to strengthen the roles that each one carries as educators. Our educators manage to discover, create and develop their own methodology according to the reality of their educational community with the use of data according to their level, area and subject. Our learning paths are adapted to the context of each educator and allow them to design their own methodologies and thus connect experiences of parents and teachers in Minkedu.

 With the training and accompaniment of parents as home educators and teachers as classroom educators, we achieved a percentage growth of students graduated at the school level, entry to higher education and reduced school dropout in students, mainly in rural and peri-urban areas.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

As an educational technology solution, Minkedu is an online learning platform for classroom and home educators. We combine the experience of an educational social network under a collaborative and inclusive approach with an audiovisual content delivery platform or online learning. With the use of data, Minkedu allows the educator to identify the methodologies that adapt to their environment and their educational community.

Educators can share content such as images, educational documents, and videos on the platform. We use content delivery technology and cloud servers under a microservices model.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

  • Audiovisual Media
  • Big Data
  • Software and Mobile Applications

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

  • Women & Girls
  • Pregnant Women
  • Elderly
  • Rural
  • Peri-Urban
  • Urban
  • Poor
  • Low-Income
  • Middle-Income
  • Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons
  • Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
  • Persons with Disabilities

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

  • Argentina
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ghana
  • Haiti
  • India
  • Jamaica
  • Nigeria
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • United States
  • Uruguay
  • Puerto Rico

In which countries do you currently operate?

  • Bolivia
  • Colombia
  • El Salvador
  • Guatemala
  • Mexico
  • Peru
About Your Team

What type of organization is your solution team?

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

How many people work on your solution team?

Currently there are 16 people who are part of the team. 8 people full time, 8 people part time.

How long have you been working on your solution?

1 year

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Janeth Mendoza, COO & Co-Founder has a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Social Entrepreneur. He has been working in educational social projects for more than 12 years, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. Janeth is also a multigrade teacher at a periurban school. Andres Quisbert, CEO & Co-founder at Minkedu, is a Software developer, UX Researcher and UX / UI designer, as an educator his time on mission in rural areas allowed him to discover his vocation and the real challenges that educators have. We both carry out educational research work and a process of adapting the contents based on the reality of the educational communities. Minkedu from its inception implemented quite a bit of research to understand the challenges across the cycle for our educators at home and classroom.

Our team also has experience with social projects and that is an important requirement since for us, understanding the context and having worked in vulnerable areas allows us to validate the constant needs and adapt our contents so that a progressive impact and percentage growth is achieved in our educators.

What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team?

At Minkedu we promote inclusive education faithful to this vision, we promote an inclusive leadership approach to successfully manage diversity in our team.

We create a safe environment where we help enhance their skills and overcome their strengths through active participation in the team where their opinions and feedback are heard.
We promote communication in a conscious, warm and respectful way, empathizing with collaborators, valuing their thoughts, emotions, culture and uniqueness.
We promote responsible autonomy, allowing the team and collaborators to achieve desired goals. We listen, adapt and work with digital tools in the way they prefer to carry out their tasks.

Minkedu is committed to the team and recognizes that through inclusion and diversity we can achieve extraordinary growth milestones.

Your Business Model & Partnerships

Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?

Organizations (B2B)
Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities

Why are you applying to the 2021 TPrize Challenge?

We applied to TPrize to achieve greater support and opportunities to scale our educational impact solution at the Latin American level and at the Global level. Minkedu seeks more resources to develop educational research and thus strengthen its mission to reduce the lack of educational accessibility from the home and classroom educator's work.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

  • Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)
  • Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
  • Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)

Please explain in more detail here.

For Minkedu, achieving the support of the TPrize allows us to connect with different countries, educational actors and the ecosystem of social impact. We are in a financing phase and the networks and connections allow us to accelerate this process. With this opportunity we want to scale our solution with more force and work with more actors who seek a sustainable educational social impact.

Solution Team

 
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