Educating Underserved Children

I am Kenneth Uwah and currently support national and international organizations in the design and implementation of education programs and also work with communities to improve access to education for the poor.

My role in the Project is the provision of leadership in design and implementation.

I have over 3 decades of experience in design and delivery of education programs in private and public sectors.  Key experiences include Technical Adviser to Nigeria’s Ministers of Education for over seven years; working closely with Development Agencies including DFID, World Bank,  USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF in implementing their education programs in Nigeria.  Was recently member of the Research Team of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation on collection and analysis of data on Education in Northern Nigeria.  I have also worked with a number of Nigerian education agencies and institutions in the implementation of their programs and actively involved in youth and entrepreneurship development programs.

I am committed to solving the problem of the high number school-age children that do not attend school in Nigeria, 38% of which are girls.  I am also committed to addressing the challenge of poor public education outcome with learning gap of 4 years,   creating a section of the underserved with no foundations to participate positively in national economic and social life, constituting threat to national security (here).

Our project proposes to provide high quality, low-cost Basic Education programs with Digital Literacy and Technology at the center, targeted at Underserved children.  It seeks to build equitable educational foundations to enable children develop skills and competences to play relevant roles in the 21st Century society. 

The project will elevate humanity by ensuring that children are developed to be assets to society in order to further contribute to its dynamism and support economic development and the movement out of extreme poverty.

One of every three school age child in Nigeria do not attend school. Total number of out-of-school children in Nigeria range from 13 million UNICEF  estimates (here) to 16 million estimate by government officials (here).  Further, 38% of these are girls (here) who spend most of the time on the streets hawking and other forced labor to support families.

Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, representing over 10% of the global population of 129.2 million (here).  Related to lack of access to education is poor quality outcome in public schools as nearly all the public education facilities lack the capacity to provide quality education (here, here) integrated with Technology thereby widening the Digital Divide and learning gap of 4 years (here).  These lead to higher illiteracy with over 60 million  of the population of 200 million people lacking basic literacy.   These increases the section of disaffected underserved that pose threats to social cohesion and making Nigeria becoming continually fragile (here)

The key factors contributing to the problem that relate to our Project include:

- Lack of equitable access to quality basic education and

- Digital Divide

Our Project is an education program targeting Underserved children in the Nigerian society.  It aims at providing equitable access to quality basic education, Digital Literacy and promoting participation in Science and Technology so as to enhance their capacity to develop skills and competences for the future.

The Project has four components:

1. Quality, Low-Cot Basic Education

This provides access to high quality, low-cost Basic Education program based on the Unesco Child Friendly School Model.  The facilities for these will be sited around the deprived areas to enhance access for the Underserved.  It will be low-cost to ensure that it is affordable to the target population.

2. Digital Literacy Program for Public Schools

This targets children in public schools as they lack facilities and access to Digital Literacy that can provide them appropriate foundations for the future. 

3. Girls Education

This targets the enrollment of girls in Basic Education and Digital Literacy Programs to enable them develop skills for the future.

4. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

The STEM Program  encourages children and youths to develop and sustain interest in STEM as a strategy for developing 21st careers in those fields.  It will also encourage participation of girls in STEM

I am working to improve the educational attainment of children of the extremely poor in Nigeria where 90 million people, nearly half of the populations live in extreme poverty.  Most of their children, estimated at 13 to 16 million do not attend school, accounting for over 10% of the global population of out-of-school children.  38% of these children are girls.  These substantial parts of the poor and Underserved population do not have the opportunity to participate in quality education.

To engage the target population and understand their needs, I have extensively conducted studies on their challenges.  This included recent Research on the challenges of basic education in Northern Nigeria where most of the out-of-school children are located.  There has also been review of works of national and international organizations seeking to address the challenges.  There have also been close interaction with them and their parents in relations to their needs through interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaires as well as close observations.  These have provided excellent understanding of their needs.

The Project is addressing their needs through providing access to quality education and Digital Literacy Programs which will provide a sound foundation for the children to develop skills for the future. 

Millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria do not have access to basic education, an essential fundamental right and foundational requirement for the future and movement out of poverty which is enshrined in the Constitution.  There are also millions of public school children lacking access to Digital Literacy.  Our project seeks to support the provision of access to quality education as well as Digital Literacy to children in public schools to enable them take advantage of the role of technology in society.  These appropriately align with the Elevate Prize dimension towards elevating opportunities for people that have been traditionally left behind.

As a result of poverty, I had limited opportunity to participate in formal education but worked hard to continue to attain desired aspirations.  As a result of my experience, I have always had the ambition to put in place organizations that can support the poor and underserved towards enhancing educational attainment and skills and therefore capacities to actively take advantage of opportunities in society and move out of poverty.

The idea about the project was further solidified from about 2005 by the opportunity to work in the education sector.  This included advising senior government officials in Nigeria on the design and implementation of education programs as well as working with International Development agencies on the implementation of their education and social programs in Nigeria.   These experiences provided great insight into the challenges faced in the delivery of education especially for poor children of Nigeria.  My conclusion was that bureaucracy and corruption are key factors in the failure of efficiently delivering education to the underserved.  I am therefore determined to provide an approach that will help to show that things can be done differently and more efficiently.  I have discussed the idea extensively with professional colleagues to support its success.

The problem is important because I have long realized that access to quality education is the bridge that enables the poor, underserved and their children to cross over from poverty.  While Nigeria has great economic potentials, the ability of the underserved and the out-of-school children to have the full benefit of a growing economy lies on access to quality education that prepares them with the skills to be assets to society and participate in diverse productive areas.

Also, addressing the problem is important because it is gradually turning Nigeria into a fragile state due to diverse crime and antisocial activities among the youth.  Further, the growing population of those with little access to education is a recruiting ground for political thugs, armed bandits and the growing insurgency   Coming from Nigeria, I have had the opportunity to travel extensively within the country, collect and analyze information on the problem.  The outcome and potential consequences for Nigeria has further emboldened our determination to work on addressing it.  There is hardly any part of the country not affected by different acts threatening the cohesion of the society.  These can only further increase poverty.  Equitable access to quality education is the answer to these.

I am well positioned to deliver the project because of my extensive understanding and experience relating to the problem.  Having risen from the class of the underserved, I have first-hand experience of what is needed to address their challenges.  I have over 3 decades of experience in the design, implementation and management of education programs.  This has given me the
opportunity to further understand the problem and the best approaches to addressing it.  For over 7 years, I was the Technical Adviser to  Nigerian Ministers of Education which gave me the opportunity to interact with administrative and bureaucratic officials involved in decision making in relation to education in Nigeria.  It also provided the opportunity to observe the shortcomings of the approach from public officials in addressing the problem. It provided opportunity to be involved in the design and implementation of the 4-Year Strategic Plan on Development of Nigerian Education which emphasized equitable access to quality education.  I have also had the experience of working
with key international development agencies to support implementation of their education and social programs in Nigeria.  These include DFID, World Bank, USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF.  Further, I have been extensively involved in engaging with communities in relation to their education needs as well as in establishment of institutions to support skills development among youths.  My experience providing Technical Assistance
to Nigeria’s State Commissioners of Education has also further given insight to their challenges and put me in an excellent position to address the problem that they face.

I rose from extreme poverty.  As a child, my focus was on growing up to provide opportunities for those like me.  To complete primary school, I had to move between homes for support.  I had no benefit of secondary education and studied on my own to obtain the equivalence.  Moving on, I sought to get the facilities to enable me address the problem of extreme poverty and lack of education for poor children.  This was not possible because I did not have adequate funds.  I approached financial institutions for help but none believed in such idea.  While holding steadfast to my ideals for solving the problem, I saved consistently, taking me some years to acquire land to site the pilot program.  Again, I sought external funding to provide the infrastructure, but the financial institutions were still not forthcoming and associates were also not keen as they felt my areas of interest is more of charity and not quick money-making venture they preferred.  I continued to save, sacrificing my comfort and that of my family.  Ultimately, I have been able to acquire some hectares of land in Abakaliki and Abuja, Nigeria and built the initial infrastructure to commence the Project.

My attention has always been on supporting individuals and groups to bring out their potentials to benefit wider society. Currently, apart from working on the problem of poor access to education by the underserved, I am also actively involved in diverse communities in youth employable skills development. This is through coordinating Entrepreneurship Development Program that enables youths to access funding to enable them set up small businesses.  I have also actively mentored youths towards educational attainment.  One was a cleaner in the government offices and had the dream of growing in life.  Based on my own past, I provided instruction to him every Saturday which ultimately led to his passing the equivalent of school certificate examinations.  From this, he went on to undertake other educational programs.  Today, he is a Deputy Registrar in one of Nigeria’s top Universities and working towards a towards a Doctoral degree.   Currently, I coordinate a group of education administrators to develop capacities in collection, management and dissemination of information.  This is to support abilities to perform their responsibilities and organizational goals.  I have been active in providing leadership in the design and implementation of education programs as well as the establishment of educational institutions.

The Project is part of the Savannah Institute of Technology, a higher institution of learning dedicated to skills development with emphasis on Technology and Enterprise.  The Project is part of the initiative of the institution to support the underserved to develop skills and competences that will enable them exploit opportunities in the global society to move out of poverty.  The Project will be implemented mostly through a unit known as the Savannah Schools. 

My work addresses the long-standing challenge of poor educational attainment among underserved children.  Despite commitment to Universal Basic Education by Nigeria, there are still millions of children without access to education.  Nearly half of these are girls.  Similarly, where the children have access to public education, the quality is extremely poor. 

Our work provides targeted education that ensures that these children have access to foundational basic education central on preparing them for skills and competences for the 21st Century society.   These programs are structured in ways that it is low-cost and affordable to the target groups.  Comparatively, our work provides greater value than programs in public schools.

To address the challenges of poor quality education outcome of children in public schools, our work provides them with access to Digital Literacy so that they can have the foundation in the utilization of Technology to support their personal and professional growth.

The work seeks to provide information that will assist the government and its agencies towards enhancing their capacities to implement quality education programs for children of the underserved.  By doing this, it will disrupt the current inefficient approach that is riddled with lack of transparency, poor approach to value-for-money and high level corruption.  Our work will partner with these public education agencies towards guiding them towards quality basic education and promoting efficient application of resources.

Ultimately, our work will promote the closing of the Digital Divide thereby producing children with excellent preparations for personal and professional careers for the future. 

Our work will extensively impact humanity as it targets the development of children to develop the skills and competences to be assets to the human society.  Through the education programs of our work, children are provided with the ideal foundations to prepare for the challenges of the future.  It will help them to develop skills through which they can take advantage of opportunities in society and participate in diverse productive sectors.  Through the development of the human capacity of the children and the wider population through quality education integrated with Technology, the society will have the benefit of having a skilled population that is able to be involved in diverse productive processes.  It will support the building of a competitive economy and reduce poverty in society. 

Our work will lead to the development of education facilities and getting children out of the streets and into education.  Through this the society will be positively impacted by the benefits from the development of skills for the future among its young citizens.  It will also be impacted positively by the reduction of the problems of high crime caused by uneducated/unskilled children and youths on the streets being involved in anti-social activities.  Ultimately, Nigeria will benefit from greater cohesion, social harmony and enhancing the attraction of Foreign Direct Investments that will support greater economic prosperity. 

Diverse reports have shown the importance of education to society and need to develop children to support its dynamism.  Recent study by the Ahmadu Bello Foundation on Education in Northern Nigeria concluded that quality education is the solution to the challenges facing the region.  Other studies (here and here) have shown the links between education and addressing the challenge of poverty.  The COVID-19 Pandemic has also been a key challenge to the education of the poor (here).  Our work will ensure, through the integration of Technology that such occurrences in future do not interfere with children’s learning.  Further, a survey of parents and children, through questionnaires, interviews and observations have shown their keen belief that education is the key to their upward movement in society.

Our Project is currently serving 105 children that constitute the pilot program of the Project.

As we move out of the pilot program, we will be serving approximately 5,000 children directly in one year

In five years, we will directly serve approximately 50,000 children and over one million children indirectly through collaborations with state and non-state actors.

Our goals in the next year include

• Rehabilitating existing facilities to ensure that they meet standard
• Expand facilities in Abuja and Abakaliki so as to meet growing demand for our products and services
• Install Information Technology and Library & Information facilities to support quality learning
• Enable children to learn virtually as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Identify public schools in Ebonyi State and the Federal Capital Territory for the expansion of the Digital Literacy Program
• Initiative partnership opportunities with state and non-state actors who we will work with towards scaling up our work.
• Serve between 3,500 to 5,000 children
• Recruit and train resource personnel

In the next five years our goals include:

• Scaling up the Project to at least five (5) States of Nigeria
• Develop partnership with State and Non-State actors towards further scale-up of the Project to other parts of Nigeria
• Provide monitoring and evaluation data to States  to help others in successfully implementing similar programs
• Work closely with State Governments through the Universal Basic Education Commission and State Universal Education Boards to support the implementation of their basic education programs
• Strengthen the application of Technology as part of the strategy to enhance delivery and scale-up
• Serve a minimum of 25,000.

The key barrier to accomplishing our goals is the lack of availability of financial resources to support the implementation of the goals.  To accomplish our goals, we need to rehabilitate and expand our facilities so as to meet the increased demand for our services.  This will include the installation of technology infrastructure, laboratories, facilities for mobile learning and ensuring that each building is user-friendly for teaching and learning.

The unfriendly environment towards small businesses and social enterprises such as ours in Nigeria makes it difficult to access capital.  The financial institutions that could have been a bridge towards this absolutely have no interest in supporting this type of innovations.  Further their interest rates for loans is in the range of 30% with no moratorium, making it unsuitable to seek funding from such sources.

As a result of the importance, potentials and high demands for our services, if it is able to move beyond the current pilot stage, it will excel in the next five years towards accomplishing its goals of impacting millions of Nigerians.

We currently have good basic facilities for use in the implementation of our project.  These include land area of over five (5) hectares in Abakaliki and Abuja.  On these are basic buildings.

To address the challenge of finance, a number of strategies are being adopted:

Explore Funding from Government Low-Interest Loansns:  The organization is seeking funding from a new Microfinance Bank (NIRSAL Microfinance Bank) established by the Central Bank of Nigeria towards providing upto N10 million Naira ($25,000) long-term (7 years), low-interest (9%) credit facility.  Success in this will help to provide some of the basic requirements to fully implement the solution.

Applications to Grant Making Organizations:  Applications are being made to grant-making organizations with a view to accessing grants that will enable the solution to move beyond the pilot stage through the installation of key equipment and resources to enable efficient delivery of the solution.

Possible Partnerships:  We are exploring possible partnerships and collaboration including from Angel funds to support the implementation of the solutions.  This would help in scaling up the solution faster.

At the moment, we do not have any extensive partnerships.  However, our key partners on scale-up will be government basic education agencies so as to collaborate in enhancing the quality of public education programs.  There will also be partnership with non-state actors involved in supporting educational and social development.  Such collaboration will also support adding value and scaling up of their programs in Nigeria.

TARGETS OF THE PROJECT

The primary target and beneficiaries of our work are the underserved children as they do not have access to quality basic education that prepares for the 21st Century.  We also target children in public schools, who as a result of poor quality education system, do not have access to the advantages of Digital Literacy thereby missing out on key foundations for the future.

SERVICES

The services consist of the following which are provided in a formal teaching and learning environment

(a)  Basic Education Program, covering Early Childhood to Secondary Education based on the UNESCO-Child-Friendly Model.  This is Learner-Centered with Technology integrated in teaching and learning.  The service is also low-cost so that the target group can comfortably afford it.  The cost is comparable to what the parents spend on lower-quality product from public schools.

(b) Digital Literacy Program targets children in public schools to enable access to Digital Literacy and its advantages for future success.

(c) Girls Education Program is integrated in the Basic Education Program to encourage gender equity and greater participation of girls in education and their development to excellence

(d) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is integrated in the Basic Education Program to encourage greater participation in STEM from the early stages.

The community needs these because it will support the development of the children to assets for society, providing them with the skills and competences to take advantage of opportunities in diverse sectors of society and move out of poverty.

To fund the services, diverse approaches will be used in ensuring financial sustainability initially and at scale:

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE PROMOTER

At the onset of the pilot the, the financing of the provision of the services will be through the contribution of the promoter of the service.

DEBT/INVESTMENT

Post-pilot, the organization will seek medium-term debt/loan and investment to scale up the services.

GRANTS/DONATIONS

Donations and grants will be sought from organizations to support the post-pilot activities and scale-up of the services.

SUBSIDIZED CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BENEFICIARIES

Beneficiaries will make subsidized contributions towards the cost of their training.  As the provisions of the services progress, there will be assessment of the capacities of the beneficiaries so that some would pay the full cost. 

PROVISION OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

The parent organization will be involved in the provision of goods and services through which revenue will be generated to cover costs of operations and liabilities.  The Products and services will include:

-Production of goods using part of the 12 hectare facilities of the organization

-Agricultural processing and marketing involving the storage, processing and distribution of agricultural products

-Large-scale retail of consumer goods, allowing the opportunity to make goods available at lower price

-Transport and Logistics services

-Real Estate

-Culinary Services

-Hospitality

-Fashion Design and Production

-Cosmetics and Beauty

-Financial Services

-Consultancy Services

These product and services will serve the dual purpose of providing training ground for participants in the skills development programs offered through the Solution.

Over the past 12 there was income of equivalent of about $6,000 (N2,170,000) mainly from subsidized contributions from the participants

In June 2020, we obtained a loan of N2,500,000 ($6,944), payable over three (3) years from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s  Targeted Credit Facility to address the impact of COVID-19.  This is being used to improve our facilities and work on the integrated of Technology for teaching and learning.

The organization is seeking about $1.5 million in debt, equity and grants from Nigeria and other parts of the world to support the successful implementation and scale-up of the Project.  

Our estimated expenses for 2020 is:

Upgrading and Development of facilities        -              $120,000

Technology and Learning Infrastructure and Materials    $75,000

TOTAL                                                                        $195,000

We are applying for the Elevate Prize because it will address the challenge of funding and support the expansion of our facilities to enable us move the project beyond the pilot stage.  Specifically, it will help us to

• Rehabilitate existing facilities in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
• Install Technology infrastructure and materials to enable greater quality outcome
• Provide mobile technology vans to enable the Digital Literacy Program to be taken nearer to the targets in the communities
• Install Science Laboratories to strengthen the capacity of the target group to participate in STEM

The Elevate Prize will actually elevate our Project so that it will in a short period, exceed its short-term expectations. 

We seek partnership in the implementation and scale-up of the Project.  These should include:

1.  Finance to develop and expand infrastructure and facilities for implementation

2.  Donation of books and technology equipment for use by the targets of the Project

3.  Mentors to support greater efficiency in the implementation of our Project.

We would like to partner with organizations that may add value to our Project including the provision of teaching and learning resources and technical support.