COVID 19 PANDEMIC;E-LEARNING MODEL MAK

Many female students from marginalized communities locked-down in their homes cannot access learning materials distributed by the government.Due to lack of televisions sets and radios the lessons which are taught using these facilities favor only the rich and urban. This project hopes to distribute smartphones to from primary and secondary school  female students in rural communities to enable them participate in online learning that is going on in the country during this lock-down.The project will also train selected female students in entrepreneurial skills to enable them sustain themselves in terms of fees and buying data for their phones.Female students will also be trained on how they can transact business using smart phones.
This project solution would positively change lives of women and girls from vulnerable communities especially developing world,  if it was scaled globally ,because phones can be used not only for learning but also business.

Globally, more than 290.5 million students have been disrupted and their education threatened by Coronavirus (MacArthur, 2020). According to UNESCO (2020), COVID 19 pandemic has forced over 1.54 billion and youth enrolled in school or university, with 743 million girls out of school in 185 countries, and of these 111 million of these girls are living in the world's least developed countries.  

This has gone along with many parents of these schooling children being
forced out of their jobs and business, raising the problems of decreased
ability to buy necessities for family members or access health care.

This challenge resulting from the pandemic will increase students' dropouts, sexual exploitation, absenteeism, early marriages, pregnancies, and absenteeism from school if there are no interventions their access to quality education. In Uganda, the Ministry of Education and Sports (2020) has tasked parents to help their children in learning from homes during the COVID 19 lockdown, yet, parents lack televisions and radios or money to load the internet or data, therefore, many girls in marginalized communities cannot participate in online learning  which has a negative effect on females’ access to and participation in quality education.

The project hopes to equip female students in primary and secondary schools from selected rural districts with smart phones or Tablets to enable them participate in th ongoing online teaching that goes on during  the lock-down resulting from COVID 19.They will be in position download the material which is posted online by National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) and also participate in lessons which are broadcasted on televisions and radios. The female students will also use the smartphones to reach out to many customers to sell their products once trained in entrepreneurial skills.Smart phones need electricity for charging,  internet and data , yet the majority of these girls come from remote villages where there is no electricity.The project hopes to install solar in some selected houses so that children can charge their phones and do assignments. In the initial stage, these girls will be facilitated to be in position to have their phones charged in trading centers or neighborhood,where there is electricity.Since most families where these children come from have nothing to eat, each student participating in the project will also be supplied with foodstuffs to enable them study well.

The project is targeting South-Western Uganda in the districts of Kisoro, Rubanda, Rukiga,Kabale,Ntungamo,Rukungiri and Kanungu.The project participants will be primary and secondary school aged between 12-20 years of age. These are remote areas where the majority of the girls in primary and secondary schools come from vulnerable families which has been worsened by COVID 19.There are so many complains on the ground, newspapers,media and government officials that these districts and others in Uganda in the same category are not participating in the ongoing online teaching and are not receiving learning materials which NCDC is distributing during this COVID 19 lock-down.The smartphone will address their needs because the beneficiaries can participate in online learning and download the materials which NCDC is distributing.Beneficiaries can also help their friends who are not part of the project to participate in learning using the same phone.Some selected families of the female student beneficiaries will have access to solar to promote a conducive learning environment.

This project will be guided by the Theory of Change (ToC)  which assumes that  improvement of females'  access to quality education through use of smart phones and entrepreneurial lifelong skills will  enable them to enroll , participate and complete education.

The solution of smart phone solution as in this project is related to the challenge of how marginalized girls can access quality learning approaches.In times of disruption and COVID 19 lock-down, learning can continue so that vulnerable communities are not left out.Female students can also be engaged in entrepreneurial lifelong skills to be able to contribute towards their fees since the majority of parents lost their jobs and businesses, Parents' unemployment resulting from COVID 19   points to many girls dropping out of school once lock-down is lifted  if there are no interventions in place to address  situation.

As COVID 19 bites harder and opening of schools remain uncertain, the government is planning to provide at least 10 million radio sets to every household  and 137, 466 powered- televisions sets to help students in marginalized districts participate in distance and  E-learning .Whereas this is a positive move, most families have around 2-5 children in different levels of learning, so some children will be redundant when their classes are not televised or on radio pragrammes.More so, the majority of the parents in rural areas have no money to buy cells if given radios ,because their priority is to make sure that there is money to buy food for the family. What makes my solution innovative is that it gives the female student an oppurtunity to take charge of her learning. She can collaborate, cooperate, network and discuss with her colleagues using a phone through emails, Youtube, WhatsApp Telegramm etc. She can also research and download learning material from her phone.  If a student is given a smartphone and then trained in entrepreneurial lifelong skills , the student will take control of her learning and raise money to buy data or internet.

The core technology for this project of enabling the female students access quality learning is application of smartphones (tablet) to enhance quality learning of students who are in and after the  rock down and even after.If female students are provided with tablets , they will be in position to participate in the ongoing online teaching that is going on and benefiting only urban dwellers and children of the reach in rural areas.The tablet will provide a wide range of learning opportunities , whereby the learner can interact with the teacher  since most of them have smartphones and ask her or him questions where one does not understand compared to the televised lessons and radio broadcasts where the learner has no one to consult in case he/she does not understand

The government of Uganda  through National Curriculum Development is pilot-testing use of tablet-learning in 4 secondary schools  within Kampala which are government founded.Schools which are financially sound , mostly international and traditional schools are using computers to teach students. COVID 19 has shown that the best way to go is to use e-learning than relying on the traditional use of textbooks and the chalkboard.

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This project will be guided by the Theory of Change (ToC) that emerged in the 1990s at the Aspen Institute Roundtable on community change as a means to model and evaluate comprehensive community  initiatives.  This theory assumes that application of smart phone or  tablet e-learning will
improvement of females' quality of education  in terms of access,enrollment, participation ,retention and completion.   Use of tablets will change the way the females understand learning, it will enhance their critical thinking,problem solving and interact with the world technology. Their families  will also drastically change since the tablet can be it used  not only for learning but  for communication with others. The Theory of Change will be applied in a participatory manner.   The theory of Change will ensure that females are technologically and economically empowered to contribute to their families, pay their fees,  stay in school, respond to the COVID crisis in terms of solving  learning problems.The  theory will lay strategies that would scale up the  project to reach out to other female students in other marginalized areas of Uganda.

The project is targeting 1000 female students in primary and secondary school

This project is targeting to reach over 10,000 female students in both primary and secondary school

Barriers will include delays from stakeholders to give me permission to reach out to female students in their communities and schools.

There will be mobilization and sensitization of stakeholders through training workshops

Makerere University is a government University founded in 1922 with 8 colleges

The project will be run by 7 members of staff, and 4 non-teaching staff

The team is obliged by the university mandate to participate in community outreach programmes. Some members of staff have also engaged in related projects at community level

We shall partner with National Curriculum Development Center and Ministry of Education and Sports.

I hope to be funded