Shetechtive Uganda

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional education that requires physical presence of both learner and teacher in a physical classroom. This has dictated that learning is mainly remote and done online using an electronic device such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop. This shift to online learning has resulted into leaving out of majority of learners in developing countries whose families cannot afford to have daily power and internet connections.

Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation by Shetechtive Uganda involve alternative school and community visits where public school learners in nursery and primary levels of education are introduced to educative tablets that contain open source mobile applications such as games, puzzles, audio and video content. Introduction to tablet education provides a variety of interactive forms of educative content hence increasing the ways in which learners can grasp concepts. Rotation of tablets ensures equal access to all learners from different schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted learning for 1.5 billion primary and secondary level learners ages (5-18) worldwide therefore impacting 87.6% of the world’s total enrolled learners and worsening the learning gap between children from wealthier households who were able to continue distance learning through digital means and those from poorer households who started falling behind.The pandemic has therefore dictated that remote, online learning must be adopted yet majority of learners from developing countries such as Uganda neither have access to educative devices such as laptops, smartphones or tablets nor a secure and stable internet connection. According to UNICEF, young and adolescent girls are twice as likely to be out of school in a crisis situation and face greater barriers to education and vulnerabilities such as domestic / gender based violence when not in school. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, majority of learners, especially those from developing countries relied solely on traditional learning that requires physical presence of both learner and teacher in a classroom. Imposing of restrictions such as lockdowns on schools implies that majority of learners will not be able to continue with their studies since their parents and caretakers have only been able to afford traditional education.

Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation by Shetechtive Uganda involve alternative public school visits in a community and introducing learners to tablets that contain free open source educative content such as games, quizzes, puzzles, audio and videos that provide a variety of alternative, fun and interactive forms for learning. Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation promote access to universal learning by enabling access to open source educative content to all groups of learners since the tablets are rotated among all schools in a given community, district or region. Learners from public schools, who only rely on traditional learning styles that involve physical presence of both learner and teacher in a physical classroom are provided with study options in the form of games, puzzles, audio and videos that encourage independent thinking. Learners such as refugees whose education has been disrupted permanently and temporarily due to continued lockdowns and also due to inability of their parents to continue paying for their education post COVID-19 lockdown are able to continue their studies due to the Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation. Girls and young women from such communities will be given tablets on installment payment basis to ensure that they can afford them.

Target users are learners from public schools in developing countries where the traditional education system that requires learners and their teachers to be physically present in a classroom, is the major channel through which learning happens. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dictated that for education continuity for such learners to happen, they must adopt remote and online learning and yet such learners come from low income households that cannot afford to have a constant and secure power and internet connection on a daily basis.
Currently, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation are being carried out with primary school learners in 50 public schools in the four regions of Uganda. We have also carried out Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation in neighborhoods where there are hard to reach primary level learners such as refugees in Ugandan camps who are permanently not able to continue with their formal education even post COVID-19 lockdown.

Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation involve alternative public school visits in a community and introducing learners to tablets that contain free open source educative content such as games, quizzes, puzzles, audio and videos that provide a variety of alternative, fun and interactive forms of learning. Tablets that are powered by free open source educative content that are mainly offline promote access to quality learning experiences in low-connectivity settings—including imaginative play and hands-on experiments to learners from low income households that cannot afford to have a constant and secure power and internet connection on a daily basis. 

Currently, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation are being carried out with about 15 primary school learners per school in 50 public schools in the four regions of Uganda. The learners from public schools have typically never experienced remote tablet education and come from low income households that cannot afford to have a constant and secure power and internet connection on a daily basis. We have also carried out Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation in neighborhoods where there are primary level learners who are permanently not able to continue with their formal education post COVID-19 lockdown. Shetechtive Uganda is currently registered as a company that is limited by guarantee in Uganda.

Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation by Shetechtive Uganda enable broader positive impacts from others in the Edtech space because it brings Edtech applications such as free open source educative content, games, puzzles, audio and videos closer to learners in two ways. 
Firstly, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation involve alternating public schools visits in a given community which expose learners to digital open source educative content which is usually reserved for learners from wealthy families. This gives an opportunity to innovators of free open source educative technologies an opportunity to reach out to all groups of learners, even those from low income households. Our solution is therefore complementary to the many efforts being made in creating edtech solutions such as mobile applications, games , audio and video books.
Secondly, Shetechtive Uganda offers affordable smartphones and tablets to girls and young women on installment basis which enables them to access free open source educative content. This enable broader positive impacts such as increased reach from others in the Edtech space because it brings Edtech applications such as free open source educative content, games, puzzles, audio and videos closer to learners.

750 learners from 50 schools in Uganda are currently being served by Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation.

In one year, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation will serve 3,000 learners from 200 schools in Uganda.

In five years, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation will serve 15,000 learners from 1,000 schools in Uganda.

What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and -- importantly -- how will you achieve them?

750 learners from 50 schools in Uganda are currently being served by Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation.
In one year, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation will serve 3,000 learners from 200 schools in Uganda.
In five years, Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation will serve 15,000 learners from 1,000 schools in Uganda.

Our indicators include literacy and numeracy levels and number of learners who attend a "mobile tablet classroom on rotation"

3 fulltime including two cofounders and one photographer who is also in charge of communications.
7 part-time.
Contractors include suppliers of tablets, flash disks, laptops and smartphones.

Everyone on our team was born and raised in Uganda. We have all studied in typical Ugandan public schools. 
Rebecca Nanono is the team lead and cofounder. She is a 2020 graduate of a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from Makerere University. She has 2 years’ experience in social entrepreneurship and is therefore well suited to direct the activities of Shetechtive Uganda. Rebecca is passionate and committed to working for impact and the inclusion of all girls and young women in STEM education.  She also has four years’ experience in marketing and sales and is therefore well fitted for directing the marketing and sales of the educative smartphones. 
Onen Emmanuel is a motivated, adaptable and responsible computer scientist ready to learn more and utilize technical skills developed through past experiences in this field. He has a strong drive to see things through to completion. He also has experience with open source technology for inclusive education. He has trained and equipped youth at Hive Colab with ICT skills.
Janet Namutebi is a software engineer with 3 years’ experience with open source technology for inclusive education. She has a track record in working on empowerment interventions for women in Computing with organizations such as Google Women Tech Makers. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Angel Nattabi is a 2021 graduate of a bachelor’s degree in Water and environment engineering. She has 2 years’ experience with social inclusion of girls and young women in development interventions.

Our team is composed of people from diverse faiths such as Muslims, Catholics and born again Christians. This helps in guiding our decision making as an organization since we can listen to different views. Our Mobile tablet classrooms have been hosted in Islamic, Catholic and atheist founded schools in Uganda which makes our solution inclusive to all groups of learners regardless of their faith. Shetechtive Uganda’s two co-founders are young women which makes it easy for us to direct our work with a focus on serving girls and young women of diverse backgrounds such as those who are persons with disabilities, refugees and those from discriminated ethnicities since we have experienced and understand their challenges better, for example, we offer affordable smartphones to girls and young women on installment basis because we understand that they face unique barriers that make them unable to buy smartphones and other study devices when the payment is meant to be paid in full. 

“Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation” face a problem of inadequate supplies of tablets. Joining SOLVE will enable Shetechtive Uganda to gain exposure to potential suppliers and partners who will help in mitigating this problem.

Joining SOLVE will expose our solution to developers and creators of free open source Edtech content which is necessary for powering Shetechtive Uganda’s “Mobile Tablet Classrooms on Rotation”.

Existing creators of edtech. 

Mobile tablet classrooms on rotation are conducted in some of the many refugee camps in Uganda.The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion will be used to advance our solution by facilitating replication of our Mobile Tablet classrooms on rotation inmore refugee camps.

Mobile Tablet classrooms on rotation provide a sustainable model of sharing / rotating community infrastructure , that is, tablets among learners in low connectivity and low resource areas.

Mobile Tablet classrooms on rotation provide tablets to girls and young women on installment payment plans.