School at Farm
Historically in Colombia, for countryside girls and women, K-12 and higher education have been challenging to access. As evidence, 75% of rural women do not finish high school. In Colombian rural areas, 37.4% of women are in poverty. Scarce educational opportunities, high rates of poverty, and gender inequality are the big problems for girls and women in rural areas in Colombia and Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Our solution is to benefit countryside girls and women with an accessible and high-quality education. Our off-line educational program does not require physical infrastructure, constant Internet connectivity or journeys that reduce their time at home or farmwork. The solution that we propose could be adapted to any rural context, in Colombia or Latin American and Caribbean countries. We hope to improve the quality of life of girls, women, and as a consequence, the quality of life of entire families in rural areas.
In Colombia, there are 25.5 million women. Of these, 5.4 million live in rural areas. In these regions, 37.4% of women are in poverty. These values are associated with limited access to education. Unfortunately, this scenario is replicated in other countries in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
As the central causes, could be considered: a scarce offer of educational programs adapted to the socio-economic and geographic context of the countryside and gender norms traditional culture. There are public educational institutions spread around Colombia, and there is some offer of virtual education programs. Nevertheless, for the majority of rural women, it is not possible to reach these options due to household chores, low-incomes, and limited or no Internet connection. Women and girls, in the countryside, continue to carry out domestic tasks, and men are generally responsible for agricultural duties.
The problem we want to solve is that of access to high-quality education for rural women, despite their socioeconomic situation and geographic context.
We want all people to know that high-quality education can reach every most remote part of the world. We believe this is possible without a big investment of economic, infrastructure and technology resources.
Our solution is an education system, adapted to the conditions of the rural population (limited financial resources, limited Internet access, and low academic level). The characteristics of this system are:
1) Through an application, virtual learning is carried out asynchronously (offline). Students require spending less than 5% of their study time to obtain and send information related to educational content.
2) Our solution does not include degrees that certify students as high school graduates. The proposed academic method is mainly adjusted to the SaberPro state academic test. Under Colombian law, any citizen can present this test, and if they achieve a score equal to, or more than 70% of the total stipulated in the test, they pass and are considered as high school graduates.
3) Audiovisual, didactic, and interactive tools will be the principal mechanism for communicating the information.
4) This method is supported by the assumption that everything taught is simple and understandable.
5) Every student will receive a tablet with AppCampus, pedagogic, and bibliographic material, other apps (to complement learning).
6) Students' learning will be guided and accompanied by teachers.
Approximately 4 million women living in rural Colombia do not finish secondary education, and more than 37% are in poverty. The diversity of this female group considers indigenous, Afro-descendant, Palenqueras, and Gypsy women. There are many particular situations whereby rural women never begin or drop out of formal education. Among these can be considered: disabilities, pregnancy, poverty or low-incomes, displacement due to internal war conditions, cultural barriers, or hard geographical localization (which avoids reaching schools or reduce options to Internet connectivity).
Through our project, we will awareness them to recognize that their situation and hindrances, could be addressed through the improvement of their education. Education gives women the capacity for personal fulfillment through freedom, dignity, and opportunity. Education must be seen as the means for rural women to work as a team with the male members of the household. Studies estimate that one year of secondary education increases the income possibilities of households approximately 25%. Moreover, the economic loss involved in not educating women at the same level as men is equivalent to US$ 90,000 million per year globally. In this way, our public will understand that family progress is made possible through education, and is in their hands.
- Increase the number of girls and young women participating in formal and informal learning and training
The identified problem is the absence of educational systems adapted to the necessities of rural regions. Through this solution, we hope to benefit girls and women in the countryside. The Colombian rural population is made up of 5.4 million women, of whom 37.4% live in poverty, and 75% have not completed secondary school. With the implementation of School at Farm, we will begin a new stage of development in rural areas, facilitating access to education for girls and women. In this way, we help to reduce, indirectly, poverty rates, and gender inequalities in the rural zones.
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
- A new application of an existing technology
Almost in all municipalities of Colombia exist public educational institutes that offer education for countryside people (children, young and adults). However, physical presence is a condition, and the quality given by these institutions is weak when compared with that offer by private institutions in the urban zones. Regarding SABER 11 tests, rural educational establishments in Colombia always classified in the lowest performance categories (Special Plan for Rural Education, 2018). Several educational institutions (colleges, institutes, and universities) offer virtual programs to finish high school. Access to these programs depends on a robust and constant Internet connection and a permanent economic base, often inaccessible. Undoubtedly, these conditions are an obstacle for rural communities.
Governments from different parts of the world, including Colombia, have made great efforts to increase the connectivity of their citizens. In cities, progress has been substantial, but in rural areas, the situation is different. Due to the distribution of the rural population, the geography, and the socio-economic position of several farmers, bringing the Internet to these distant areas have been particularly challenging.
We overcome the barrier of connectivity and scarce economic resources with a solution that uses technological tools that are not new (Apps, web platform, CD, and physical guides) but that we build in such a way that we can adapt our educational system to the conditions of the rural population, and specifically, rural women.
Reaching the most remote areas of the world with quality education and achieving equity in access to education will mark a milestone.
The solution we propose is based on an application or software called AppCampus, which works asynchronously (off-line), with the following functions:
· Installation and presentation of the topics: The audiovisual material of each subject only is reproduced through the application. Once such content is installed (either from the virtual platform or with the study package that is sent in physical), AppCampus will allow the material to be played off-line (without an Internet connection) as many times as the student requires.
· Academic performance examination: AppCampus will facilitate the evaluation of academic performance and will determine in real-time if the student passes the quizzes. AppCampus will only allow the generation of quiz reports, once the entire activity has been correctly resolved. This educational system allows solving the quizzes as many occasions as necessary, with feedback every time the student makes mistakes.
· Data storage and report generation: AppCampus will create quiz reports and store all the information in its database, connecting with the virtual platform for subsequent statistical analysis.
· Connection to the virtual platform: All the student's academic information will be stored on the virtual platform and can only be done through AppCampus. Through the Internet, this platform is the mechanism through which the institution communicates and keeps updated the entire academic community and external personnel, who want to know information related to the educational system.
Professor William Rincón Prada (a member of our team) designed and implemented a system that allows teachers, in a Colombian rural educational community, to continue educating their students despite the geographical restrictions of the area and now, due to the sanitary limitations imposed by the appearance of the pandemic. Teachers share class material through the designed web application and, when students can connect to a Wifi network, for at least a few minutes, they download the educational content. Later, without having to stay connected to the Internet, the students develop their lessons from home. The teacher offers help to answer questions about the content being studied, through phone calls or WhatsApp. Once the students complete the lessons, they send them to the teacher through the application of their mobile device with a brief connection to the Internet, to then receive feedback.
Currently, 300 K-12 students from the Simón Bolívar Chaparral Educational Institution (Chaparral-Tolima, Colombia) take advantage from this application.
Next, some links about the results obtained with the implementation of the application:
http://canalpyc.com/noticias/4367/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMG9q2LLfZQ&feature=emb_logo
- Audiovisual Media
- Software and Mobile Applications
Overcome the lack of quality educational options adjusted to the economic and geographic conditions of the rural population, is the change that our program is aiming to bring about. School at Farm project aims to benefit countryside girls and women (our target audience) with a high-quality K-12 education level, by offering an asynchronous, low-cost, and program easy to handle. Our off-line educational program does not require physical infrastructure, constant Internet connectivity, or journeys that reduce their time at home or farmwork.
We will reach the target audience through local government, Mayor's Offices, local schools and colleges, Community action boards, NGOs active in rural areas, private guilds, and agricultural product trading companies. We will use the radio, newspapers, call phone, the Internet, and text messages as media communication. The strategic plan to operationalize the program is, with a consolidated funding and revenue model, achieve the structuration of the content and activation of the AppCampus platform, the dissemination of the project between rural communities, and the engagement of more quantity of women and girls to the project.
The measurable effects will be the increased score obtained by rural women and girls in the standardized national test of learning. The great benefit will be more women and girls from rural areas with complete high school education. Thus, the long-term changes will be more women from rural areas, admitted to university education, expanded job situation for women, and consequently improved economic autonomy, reducing the gender inequality gaps, and poverty mitigation, in the countryside. The program will be evaluated, analyzing the scores at state standardized tests for the countryside. Our learning will take place when, with those results, we identify the weakness and strongest points of our educational system.
The main assumptions underlying our theory of change are that public education will not cover 100% of the rural population; that rural women and girls want to be educated; that our users will have seasonal Internet access points available; that users will actively participate in the project.
- Women & Girls
- Rural
- Low-Income
- Middle-Income
- 4. Quality Education
- 5. Gender Equality
- Colombia
- Colombia
Currently, we are serving 300 students through the SESIBOC mobile application.
In one year, we want to serve 2 thousand girls and women, included in our education program.
In five years, we hope to serve 1 million girls and women involved in our education program.
The rural education is a drawback for women and girls, is a difficulty associated with countries with internal armed conflicts (such as Colombia), and is a concern of most underdeveloped countries. Is a global problem! Even the richest and developed countries in the world have some degree of difficulty in covering education in their remote regions. In this sense, the solution that we propose has the possibility of having a global impact in the medium and long term. Bringing quality education to increase gender equality, breaking the barriers of Internet connection, and contribute to reducing poverty, is a challenge for all nations, which is also framed in goals four and five of the UN sustainable development goals for 2030.
Our goal is to ensure that all boys, girls, youth, women, and men have access to quality education without barriers, ultimately achieving equal education for all. We know it is not easy, but we recognize that our solution can be supported by governments, philanthropic organizations, or even by users, which makes it sustainable over time.
Financially, we need resources to convert the SESIBOC application into AppCampus and to build academic content, adapted to the proposed educational methodology.
Technical support for students is an obstacle to the accurate implementation of the application. When used in isolated areas, offering support is more complicated.
The principal hindrance to overcome is the cultural one. It is possible to bring the school to rural girls and women, but there are two conditions for them: want to do it and have the support of their families. Both positions are equally important.
We believe that the financial barrier is susceptible to being overcome, since the resources we need are low, compared to those necessary to bring education physically or via the Internet to every corner of the planet. Participation in calls for financing and the constant dissemination of our project to the community will allow obtaining the required financial resources.
Regarding technical limitations, we have an interdisciplinary team, which has addressed different operational aspects and propose a highly detailed methodological framework, which makes it feasible.
Two years ago, when we started to build the proposal, it was considered that the main obstacle was dependence on the Internet. But, the development of SESIBOC allowed verifying that this barrier can be handle. The application will be rigorously validated to decrease the risk of failure, reducing subsequent technical support.
For the cultural obstacle, the procedure is more complex, and we will require the support of other institutions that support the process of raising awareness among these families about the importance of education and its access to all family members.
- Nonprofit
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Full-time staff: Oscar Monsalve, Nadia Luque, Zulma Sarmiento,
Part-time staff: William Rincón, Mireya Luque, Tatiana Sarmiento.
Highly qualified professionals in different areas conform our team. We understand the sector we want to reach. From this knowledge, we have developed the proposal. With adequate bibliographic support and the personal background of the work team members, the project is well supported. Moreover, the work team has a relevant network of contacts that will give higher support to the proposal.
Oscar Monsalve. Agronomist, MSc, Ph.D. (C). With 13 years of experience in the formulation and execution of agricultural projects of different kinds, research, and teaching at the university level.
Nadia Luque. Agronomist, Researcher. With 10 years of experience in managing agricultural production systems, participatory work with farmers and agricultural research.
Zulma Sarmiento. Agroindustrial Production Engineer, MSc., Ph.D. (S). With experience in the formulation of projects related to the agro-industrial area. Project formulation and participation in volunteer programs with vulnerable communities.
Mireya Luque. Psychologist, Esp. With 20 years of experience in developing projects for the attention of vulnerable populations, children at risk, victims of armed conflict, people with disabilities and the elderly. Also with practice in the development of pedagogical projects for strengthening school environments and cultural management.
Tatiana Sarmiento. Multimedia Engineer with a specialization in 3D character animation with 5 years of experience in multimedia product development and 1 year of full focus on 3D character animation for both video games and films.
William Rincón. Systems Engineer with 6 years of experience as teacher, and cultural manager. Community leader in youth issues in the municipality of Chaparral Tolima.
We do not work with any organization at this point.
Our value proposition is to bring high-quality secondary education to areas where this education is not available. We want to offer for users, an asynchronous, low-cost, easy to handle, and high-quality education program at the K-12 level, for the countryside population. The benefits of our target population are mainly two. First, to obtain enough score to legally approve their secondary studies. Second, to obtain a high score that allows it to open doors (jobs or public university).
Our users include girls and women in rural areas who do not have the opportunity to start or conclude K-12 level education. The contact with these customers will be through local governments and partners, local media (radio, newspaper), or direct contact (cellphone SMS/calls). Talented human, platform's content, the financial network, and marketing, are our key resources.
We follow the cost-driven structure, where we develop the leanest-cost structure with a low-price value proposition. Being the main costs: staff, AppCampus construction (contents and organization) and operation/maintenance, fixed and variable operation costs, marketing, and customer service. With diverse individuals and organization's donations support, we aim to further lower the price of our educational service without compromising its quality content.
Our revenue will be generated from: Usage fee: 70%; Donations: 20%; Sale of other services: 5%; Advertising: 5%. Fixed and dynamic pricing will be volume-dependent and yield management, respectively. Surpluses will primarily be used for payment of qualified collaborators, hardware, and software development/maintenance and marketing.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
We will bring in money to fund our work, with a combination of minimum usage fee, sustained donations and grants, selling additional products or services, and advertising. In this way, in the long term, our revenue streams will cover our expected expenses.
To avoid the exclusive dependence on external funders or donors, our educational model will have a minimal cost for customers. This cost will be laughable when compared to the values that currently exist in the market for options, which, although similar, are inappropriate for the particularities of the regions that we want to cover.
The financial analysis carried out indicates that the break-even point is 5,400 students. Will be made a single charge per year for women and children (US$ 103.6, including the tablet). Emphasizing that our organization is non-profit, the money raised will be used for operating expenses (US$ 24,649 per month), and there will be no profit sharing.
Furthermore, we will get financial support through offer our service to other market niches, as rural men (US$176) or students in cities (US$ 200). In this way, they pay an extra charge which serves to grant children or rural women.
We want to join to MIT-backed network, to consolidate our project with the support from Solve staff and their Members of Solve’s cross-sector community. We recognize that with these connections, we will be able to build the partnerships needed to accelerate our work, validate our impact and business model, and scale our solution to benefit the girls and women's rural population.
- Business model
- Product/service distribution
- Funding and revenue model
- Legal or regulatory matters
- Marketing, media, and exposure
Business model: We need the discernment of an expert that allows us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our business model. Next, we will require support to implement the business model.
Product/service distribution: We need to design the most efficient mechanism for the distribution of our service, given the geographical particularities of our target population.
Funding and revenue model: We need a guide to help us identify possible sources of financing, adapted to the characteristics of the solution we are proposing.
Legal or regulatory matters: The legal support is aimed at three components: Action within the state educational legal framework, copyright protection, and the possibility of obtaining patents.
Marketing, media, and exposure: We need our educational model to be known in the most remote regions. Furthermore, we want the media to have such an impact that breaks cultural barriers.
The organizations that we would like to partner with are Colombian Government Ministries of Education, Technology & Information, and Agriculture, local educational institutions, regional boards of education, ONG and various institutions aligned with our goals. We will need the help of MIT faculties or initiatives, or Solve members. With these partners, we expect to accelerate our work, validate our impact and business model, and scale our solution to benefit the girls and women's rural population.
We want to apply to Innovation for Women Prize because our solution is technology-focused and aims to improve the quality of life and advance the needs of rural women and girls.
We are competent for this prize because we count with a highly qualified team of professionals in different areas, covering engineering, agricultural, computer, and social sciences. We understand the sector we want to reach. From this knowledge, we have developed the proposal. With adequate bibliographic support and the personal background of the work team members, the project is well supported. Moreover, the work team has a relevant network of contacts that will give higher support to the proposal.
We will use the Innovation for Women Prize for improving the AppCampus and construction of audiovisual contents. These contents will permit that our users progress rapidly in their learning process, avoiding dependence of Internet connection, which will be used just to upload their works and to receive feedback.
We want to promote also a world where women’s voices can be celebrated through education!
We pretend to apply to the GM Prize on Learning for Girls and Women because we are committed to encouraging access to learning opportunities for the world’s most vulnerable girls and women, inside of which rural female communities are contemplated.
We are competent for this prize because we count with a highly qualified team of professionals in different areas, covering engineering, agricultural, computer, and social sciences. We understand the sector we want to reach. From this knowledge, we have developed the proposal. With adequate bibliographic support and the personal background of the work team members, the project is well supported. Moreover, the work team has a relevant network of contacts that will give higher support to the proposal.
We will use the GM Prize on Learning for Girls and Women for improving the AppCampus and construction of audiovisual contents. These contents will permit that our users progress rapidly in their learning process, avoiding dependence of Internet connection, which will be used just to upload their works and to receive feedback.
We desire to apply to The Gulbenkian Foundation Award because we are committed to increasing literacy rates among rural communities of girls and women, to advance inclusive economic growth through upskilling and greater digital literacy. We also want help to find partners to support our local pilots.
We are competent for this prize because we count with a highly qualified team of professionals in different areas, covering engineering, agricultural, computer, and social sciences. We understand the sector we want to reach. From this knowledge, we have developed the proposal. With adequate bibliographic support and the personal background of the work team members, the project is well supported. Moreover, the work team has a relevant network of contacts that will give higher support to the proposal.
We will use The Gulbenkian Foundation Award for improving our solution through the acquisition of tablets, which will be exclusively equipped with all the necessary educational contents and the AppCampus. These contents will permit that our users progress rapidly in their learning process, avoiding dependence of Internet connection, which will be used just to upload their works and to receive feedback.
Ingeniero Agrónomo, MSc
Ingeniera Agrónoma