Gallant Institute
PROBLEM:
" African countries have underdeveloped science, technology, and innovation (STI) institutions and fail to generate and deploy technological innovations for socio-economic growth… They lack human resources to promote STI." Africa's Capacity Report 2017
On the individual, challenges in developing STI are many, broad and interwoven and include:
- poverty
- Privilege and Economic Divide
- Education Apathy
- Gender Gap
- Covid pandemic
OPPORTUNITY:
- Technology has enabled excellent distance learning, work, and certification opportunities.
- Kenya has five undersea fiber optic cables and laid out miles of Fibre optic cables across the countryside. Kenya has 4g services all over the country and is rolling out 5g network capability.
SOLUTION:
Gallant Institute focuses on creating Technical Capacity in marginalized people by pooling hardware and networked resources enabling access to:
- multi-literacy online learning,
- certification,
- professional peer discourse,
- and work platforms
thus globally facilitate underserved communities' ability to participate in interlinked international production lines, earning locally and internationally.
By resolving the Productive Capacities of Africa (the productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities, and production linkages that together make the ability to produce goods and services), Gallant Institute is creating technical capacity in rural African villages by developing science, technology, and innovation (STI) in people for socio-economic growth.
This solution inadvertently addresses three specific Solve Challenges:
EQUITABLE CLASSROOMS, DIGITAL INCLUSION, and DIGITAL WORKFORCE
Contributing factors to the problem include.
- Education Apathy "an expression of indifference, lethargy, or disengagement in the classroom environment." https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1428-6_997
"30% of enrolled don't finish primary school."
"High Class 8 dropouts hurt Kenya in U.N. poverty index" https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/High-Class-8-dropouts-hurt-Kenya-in-UN-poverty-index/539546-2418334-ghbccz/index.html
- Poverty: financial inability to address logistics (including geographical distances, boarding, and upkeep costs)
- Racial Equity: Africans suffer high taxes and duties at acquiring tools.
- Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism:
China's products and labor flood our economy.
https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/is-china-a-new-colonial-power/
- Privilege and Economic Divide (The Dynasty's Vs. Hustlers Narrative):
" British Colonialism Still Dividing Kenya" https://youtu.be/hviKpM6mSog
"Hustlers vs. dynasties rhetoric becoming unmanageable" https://www.the-star.co.ke/siasa/2021-02-05-hustlers-vs-dynasties-rhetoric-getting-out-of-hand/
- Failed Government Interventions:
Failed to implement e-learning. https://www.cio.com/article/2888593/kenya-abandons-school-laptop-project-moves-to-computer-labs.html
" low-quality teaching in Africa's education and training programs." https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2017-march-2018/africa-grapples-huge-disparities-education
- Gender Gap And Covid 19:
'Global gender increases from 99.5 years to 135.6 years due to covid-19". https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2021
GALLANT INSTITUTE is a multi-pronged application of multitudes of excellent education resources and paid online work now readily available on the internet to:
- create technical capacity by exposing villagers to free, interactive, step-by-step, Multiliteracy instruction platforms. Such as listed below but Not limited to:
- Enable online certification by providing facilities of a proctored certification center. Pearson_Vue_Test_Centres
Also, open for paid online courses. The options are unlimited
The Library is a computer lab with many workstations, networked with internet access with a firewall installed to safeguard from internal and external attacks—optimizing performance and safety by restricting the kind of content they consume over the network. A workstation consists of a desktop computer, a table, and a seat.
The workshop: allowing skill learners to practice.
Workshop1: has Arduino kits for kids to create an interest in sciences as they learn with practical application also useful for workshop3 foundation courses TinkerCad lesson plans.
Workshop2: has practicing machines for tailoring, carpentry, welding.
Workshop3: kitted with CNC machines for participants of the Autodesk design and production courses
The kindergarten.With internet-connected Amazon_kids_breakproof_Fire_tablets and teachers helping guide kids through their foundation with KhanAcademy_Kids
Actions, Understanding, and Engaging the Community
I have been a resident in the community for ten years, practicing irrigated agriculture and providing the community with borehole water and farm produce. I also serve a neighboring boarding secondary school (2.5km away) with metered piped water. I have confidently interacted with the beneficiaries and observed their pressing needs for ten years.
I started building a school project specifically because I could not find an appropriate school in the neighborhood for my daughters ten years ago. https://m.facebook.com/Gallant-Girls-School-Kima-376838642702233/ (not yet complete though)
I have consulted in-depth with villagers, and already I have done some structures and acquired some power tools (welding and carpentry) for vocational courses.
As I homeschool my daughters now because of Covid's closure of schools, I have learned and experienced the power of internet learning and wish to extend the same resources to many others.
I also keep learning online to increase my skills and learn how best to understand and serve my community. Courses I am undertaking include, among others:
- MITx course "Business and Impact Planning for Social Enterprises."
- Python programming
- Autodesk's Fusion 360
Gallant Institute strives to impact and improve many lives directly, despite demographic differences:
SUMMARY OF HOW SOLUTION ADDRESSES NEEDS OF TARGET POPULATION.
Helping the beneficiaries develop Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration in Creativity and Innovation. We will achieve:
- Having kids reconnect with the sciences creates curiosity and a passion for learning.
- To have kids able to communicate in other international languages creating trade opportunities in the future.
- To have Africans machine parts to precision,
- To have Africans in Africa design items for machining in Europe, America, and Asia while in Africa.
- To have Africans in the villages instructing computers and machines via programming and coding.
Shifting the community's trajectory by;
- Hopefully, reduce brain drain, and if they move away for work, the community will still benefit from their remittances.
- That the community can also generate income via online work/ freelancing from across borders without moving an inch from the village
- beneficiaries of the project become the role models, beacons of light for others to follow.
- We pre-empt Chinese and Asian entrepreneurs to set up CNC workshops in our market, monopolizing the industry because they caught Africans flatfooted.
- The community reduces overreliance on expatriates.
- e.g., When the Elons' portable covid vaccine printing machines meant for remort places, like Africa, get to Africa, who will operate the machines if we don't start training Africans?
- When the youths can design and fabricate complex and straightforward machines, then the community will be truly transformed by an industrial revolution of their own.
- The use of CNC machines in carpentry and welding will be a giant leap in our cottage industry. Africa will thus not be disadvantaged in trade.
"You'll be paid in the future based on how well you work with robots." Kevin Kelly https://www.makingstartshere.com/teach/
IN-DEPTH BREAKDOWN:
Target: Rural communities and Poor communities:
Reason: Education Apathy these communities have developed deep-seated education apathy because of all hurdles before these communities attempt to access competitive education over time. They have become indifferent.
Solution: Gallant Institute will ;
- Improve Educations Perceived value by the student and community
- Counter with External positive stimuli such as free sessions of learning videos projected on wide screens for the community in large to understand what WE ARE DOING and POSSIBILITIES before them.
- accessibility and affordability: those unable to pursue formal education systems established by the government due to poverty (lack of school fees, boarding costs, and upkeep ) can now pursue cheaper education from their neighborhood
- people facing social and personal obligations coupled with the logistics of survival(e.g., early mothers, married women, and breadwinners) can now have part-time education
- Provide Self-paced education with small wins (encouragements) for motivation, such as earning online badges to post on their social media sites ( own bragging rights, which by chance happens to be the institute's marketing).
- Offer Big wins as it is now possible to be certified online!
- People can generate Income/ earnings by doing online jobs (freelancing) in the library! And we will teach them how!
Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Frederick Douglass
Target: Preprimary kids:
- unfairly competing against privilege
- inadequate education programs
- poorly delivered education
- no books
- distance to schools
- late exposure to the alphabet (academic learning)
- Solution: Gallant Institute preschool: "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Frederick Douglass
- answer: The preschool can scale up and may grow with time into an entire primary school (up to grades 8) and up to secondary school (grades 12), but as a start, these kids are welcome to use the Gallant Library, where the library assistants are appropriately trained teachers of various subjects to help them
- Gallant institute library will have a section exclusively for preschoolers (aged two years) to grade 2 (eight-year-olds) kitted with Amazon_kids_breakproof_Fire_tablets
- Khan Academy Kids is entirely free, forever! We shall work with Khan Academy Kids to inspire a lifetime of learning and discovery with their free, fun educational program for children ages two to seven.
- Khan Academy Kids has Teacher Tools to supercharge learning for Pre-K through 2nd-grade students!
- there are many valuable kids apps and kids books readily accessible on Amazon_kids_breakproof_Fire_tablets
Target: Primary and Secondary School Students unfairly competing against privilege
- inadequate education programs
- poorly delivered education
- no books and school fees
- distance to schools
- with the covid pandemic, privileged others are still learning online as the poor kids stay idle.
Solution: "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Frederick Douglass
- Gallant Institute Library will work with Khan Academy to deliver Personalized Learning
- Gallant Institute Library will work with DuoLingo
- Self-paced 'international' language learning
- so that these kids can "Learn a language for free. Forever."
- To assist kids in developing interest and learning electronics, computers, programming, and robotics. Gallant Institute Library will work with TinkerCad with Adruino kits;
- at Gallant Institute, we understand that big problems require daring thinking, even when the solution is as simple as exposing young African minds to technology, allowing young minds to tinker, think, and explore.
- The gallant institute will have
- Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for:
- 3D design,
- electronics,
- and coding.
- Students practice at their own pace
- first filling in gaps in their understanding
- and then accelerating their learning
Khan Academy has Tools to Empower Teachers (Gallant Institute Library Assistants).
With Khan Academy, teachers can:
- identify gaps in their students' understanding,
- tailor instruction,
- and meet the needs of every student.
Tinkercad is applied by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything!
Target: Gender Gap:
- Bias of obligations
- solution: "Right is of no sex" Frederick Douglass - Women's Rights National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
- all resources at Gallant Institute are readily available to the womenfolk.
- They will be encouraged to take up courses they can pursue, even on a part-time basis.
- Workshop2 has practicing machines for tailoring, carpentry, and welding.
- Without prejudice, the ladies can pursue any skills they are inclined to, including design and production courses grouped in CNC workshop3 or even pursue coding and or high school certification in the Gallant Institute Library.
- The choices are limitless.
- (note: workshop2 machines are not necessarily under one roof, grouped merely as a description of nature of skill: Physical Hand dexterity )
- "Without a struggle, there can be no progress." Frederick Douglass
Target: School Dropouts:
Solution:
- Gallant Institute can mitigate 'Whatever' compelling reasons that led to their discontinuation of schooling.
- They can still learn to complete their school curriculum and be certified locally and internationally.
- They can also acquire vocational skills and be certified
- Part-time learning is allowed
"The man who will get up will be helped up, and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down." Frederick Douglass
Target: Further Learning:
Many in the villages are educated, even to university degree level, the majority being unemployed and in despair, another good number are teachers in various government schools. All seek to tweak their skills and improve their life chances in business (self-employment) or employment opportunities.
Solution:
- Gallant Institute Library: offers them the facility to learn new skills or further their skills
- Authorized test center: Gallant Institute will partner with Pearson VUE to Enable online certification by providing facilities of a proctored certification center
Target: Covid Pandemic
Solution :
Gallant Institute is in the village(s); thus, the risk from sources of contamination external to the villages will be slim.
- Social distancing: The workstations (computers in the library and machines in the workshop) shall have adequate space, and only one person will use each at a time. ( others may observe CNC machine operation observing Covids social distance)
- Disinfection: each workstation (computer or machine) will be sprayed and disinfected thoroughly with appropriate recommended chemical solutions
- Personal hygiene and health:
- Gallant Institute shall install handwashing sinks with running water at the entry point, and appropriate places
- security at the entrance will use temperature guns on entrants to protect more users from those with symptoms of fever
- Right of admission: Gallant Institute, with local and national health agencies' guidance, reserves access. To ensure safety for all
- CNC machines Fast and precise cutting and assembly for all kinds of materials making possible and manageable at cottage industries in:
- Carpentry
- Welding
- automotive parts and new designs
- it is now possible to design parts to precision in an African village for machining in Europe.
- CNC machines Fast and precise cutting and assembly for all kinds of materials making possible and manageable at cottage industries in:
Changing Systems
Gallant Institute sees this as part of the changing systems that we need to urgently prepare our constituents to face change with the capability to maximize their advantage.
1. Remort working (working from home/ away from the office)
2. Online self-employment (freelancing)
3. CNC machines. Production and Manufacture Industry going back to small units cottage industry due to precision technology now readily available and manageable with computer skills
"You'll be paid in the future based on how well you work with robots." Kevin Kelly https://www.makingstartshere.com/teach/
Other benefits to constituents regarding:
- Poverty:
- Racial Equity.
- Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism:
- Privilege and Economic Divide:
- Systemic injustices
by building the people's technical capacity to innovate. We break the vicious cycle of poverty.
With acquiring technical skills. We can then reduce our over-reliance on expatriates
By Building our technical capacity, we can resist foreign labor, goods, and services from overrunning our markets
Gallant Institute gives online education to poor
This a chance to compete with the privileged; too many that cannot start can now start.
We address such challenges facing the poor, including:
- Distance to examination centers, lack of hardware and software
- Internet connectivity (the cost of data). By pooling internet use, we get the advantage of a business bundle from the provider at about $50 a month.
We shall also serve as a proctoring test center upon partnering with Pearson Vue.
Failed Government Interventions:
Replication and advocacy for change as a change platform for reforms in the national education arena. We will lead the way at affordable e-learning and certification
"We control the first domino that tips" https://echoinggreen.org/news/are-you-scalable-or-replicable/
Other Government Intervention/ Project of Concern
Konza ICT City:
34 km from the Gallant Institute is the Konza ICT city. the newly planned city south of Nairobi envisioned to become Africa's central ICT hub or 'Silicon Savannah' with buffer zones and restricted access businessdailyafrica_ konza-buffer-zone
My people should walk through the buffer zone into the ICT city as the indispensable brains needed.
They should be able to compete with anticipated expatriates for the new opportunities
". The government has established a buffer zone around the project to prevent 'informality,' surrounding villages experience land tenure insecurity and livelihoods. " https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331255611_New_Master-Planned_Cities_and_Local_Land_Rights_The_Case_of_Konza_Techno_City_Kenya
Worlds fast Changing Systems to observe include:
- 3D Printed Electrodes Detect COVID-19 Antibodies in Seconds! https://www.contagionlive.com/view/3d-printed-electrodes-detect-covid-19-antibodies-in-seconds
- MIT prints solar cells on paper! https://news.mit.edu/2011/printable-solar-cells-0711
- Telepathy now possible! Elon Musks' Neuralink brain chip enables the brain to interface directly with a computer! https://neuralink.com/approach/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya-bAYri84
- Portable molecule printers for German COVID-19 vaccine https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tesla-idUSKBN243168 vaccines are now printable! : "mRNA vaccines for genital herpes, influenza, HIV and the coronavirus." "With an mRNA vaccine, you sit at your computer and design what that piece of RNA is going to look like, and then you have a machine that can make that RNA for you relatively easily," Cannon said. "In some ways, we're lucky in 2020 that this compelling technology was ready for prime time because it could be a huge advantage." Says Dr. Drew Weissman, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/what-mrna-how-pfizer-moderna-tapped-new-tech-make-coronavirus-n1248054
- Increase the engagement of learners in remote, hybrid, and physical environments, including strategies and tools for parental support, peer interaction, and guided independent work.
Gallant Institute, conveniently placed in settlements/villages, is designed to develop science, technology, and innovation by exposing minds to available online educational resources that allow the underserved to get inspiration, mature, and amplify their innate innovation and practice by tinkering.
EQUITABLE (0nline) CLASSROOMS; All learners access quality, safe, honest, guided online learning environment,
DIGITAL INCLUSION; everyone accesses the digital economy.
2021 ELEVATE PRIZE: Elevating opportunities for all people, issues, and solutions. Building awareness driving them into action to solve and changing attitudes by alleviating differences in privilege
ANTIRACIST TECHNOLOGY: this accessibility will advance racial equity.
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model.
Gallant Institute is now at the prototype development stage. We are still building unfinished structures ten years later
https://m.facebook.com/Gallant
We have raised minimal financing as it's primarily dependent on my savings.
I have installed 4G internet with good speeds. a more extensive package will be needed
Autodesk has awarded Gallant Girls (now Gallant Institute) several licenses for various software.
I have tested the websites we intend to use extensively by educating my three daughters for the second year. I am also learning several skills online.
I have started purchasing welding and carpentry power tools for the institute; Gallant Institute will acquire more.
Gallant Institute is in Makueni County, 3km from Kajiado County. Makueni and Kajiado are semi-arid regions. Kajiado is predominantly Maasai practicing cattle herding as the mainly Kamba community in Makueni practice rainfed agriculture. Both communities coexist harmoniously and have interacted with Gallant Institute for water and agricultural produce.
