Roots to Rise Ewaka

Ewaka is an application for feature phones designed to help children from underserved, rural areas continue their learning despite the COVID-19 educational crisis. Based on Building Tomorrow’s proven Roots to Rise program, Ewaka provides automated numeracy lessons continually calibrated to learners’ levels through regular learning assessments. Whereas most distance learning tools are unidirectional (radio) or assume an availability of smart phones and stable internet (<40% of the Ugandan population has internet access), Ewaka leverages existing interactive voice response technology with basic feature phones. Rather than leaning on videos or animations, Ewaka is designed to pull parents, as phone gatekeepers, closer to the learning where data shows their positive impact to be powerful. Currently available in English, Ewaka lessons will soon be available in three local languages as well. Plans to replicate the application in additional languages will enable expansion to additional populations, such as new refugee populations.

Ewaka will help solve the crippling educational crisis by giving rural learners – in particular out-of-school children – the foundational skills needed to survive and thrive. COVID-19 rendered 1.6 billion children out-of-school globally and 10 million out-of-school in Uganda (UN, 2020), where 1.2 million children were already out of school prior to the pandemic (UNESCO, UNICEF, 2013).  Additionally, learning outcomes were already some of the worst in East Africa and in Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly. According to the World Bank, pre-COVID, only 6% of Primary 4 students in Uganda could read a paragraph, and only 2% could solve a simple math problem. While 41% of Primary 3 learners in Uganda were considered non-readers pre-COVID, this was expected to double to 79% by June 2021 (UKFIET, 2020). Illiteracy and innumeracy further impede distance learning efforts, which often require foundational skills – particularly literacy – for access. Furthermore, residents generally lack internet connectivity or technological materials necessary for digitally-focused distance learning. With only 39% of Ugandans able to access the internet, predominantly in urban areas, Ewaka capitalizes on a market size of over 16 million feature phone subscribers (PC Tech, 2020).

Building Tomorrow has created a low-tech and context-appropriate platform called Roots to Rise Ewaka in response to the devastating learning loss across Uganda, which is currently experiencing a severe second wave of COVID-19 and subsequent full closure of schools. 15–20-minute pre-recorded lessons are provided to learners on feature phones through an automated interactive voice response (IVR) system; Ewaka is the first educational tool of its kind to employ this technology. Learners first enroll in Ewaka by sending a text with their name, phone number, demographic information, and availability. They then participate in an initial learning assessment and receive afterward lessons adapted to their level. At the end of each learning level’s set of lessons, the learner is reassessed such that subsequent lessons match the learner’s current level. Lessons contain instructions on mathematical operations and practice exercises and will soon be available in four languages: English, Luganda, Lusoga and Lunyakitara. Learners receive a reminder SMS prior to scheduled lessons. Ewaka lessons have been adapted for telephonic delivery from our proven in-person Roots to Rise learning program, which is based on the rigorously evaluated Teaching at the Right Level methodology.

Children in underserved, last-mile communities in Uganda were experiencing an education crisis long before COVID hit, and COVID has accelerated the crisis over the last 16 months. There is a particular disparity between rural and urban learners, with access to school and quality learning being much greater in urban areas. In many ways, the COVID response has focused largely on high-tech tools to reach urban populations and those with more resources. However, most new and existing distance learning tools have struggled to meet rural students at the correct learning level, require literacy as a prerequisite to process the materials, and/or require resources such as a tablet and internet connectivity, which are generally absent in rural areas.

Ewaka is shifting the paradigm, introducing technology more accessible and more appropriate for lower-tech contexts, utilizing feature phones, which are ubiquitous even in poor rural communities, as well as leveraging parents and Building Tomorrow Fellows and volunteers for support. To date, Building Tomorrow has engaged 250 Fellows, who are young Ugandan universities graduates, to work for two years in rural communities across Uganda.  These Fellows have recruited and trained more than 7,000 Community Education Volunteers (CEVs) to conduct household visits, identify and enroll out of school children, increase communities’ support of schools and school accountabilities, and improve Roots to Rise literacy and numeracy learning outcomes. In response to the first round of school closures in March 2020, Fellows and CEVs conducted several surveys to assess households’ opinions on distance learning as well as their material needs before conceiving the Ewaka program.  Concurrent to the development of Ewaka, Fellows initiated outbound phone calls to parents to first schedule and then deliver live lessons to their children by phone, often with parents at their side. Live phone lessons were later converted into automated phone calls through which children now receive their lessons with Ewaka. Currently, there are 5,056 Ewaka learners, with more being enrolled each day.

Schools were planned to reopen in June 2021 for Primary 1 to Primary 3 learners for the 2020 academic year; this has been further postponed by a new wave of COVID and subsequent school closures for all grade levels announced by the Ugandan president on June 6, 2021. It is anticipated that P1-3 learners will miss out on the entire 2020 academic year, and the previously planned start of the 2021 academic learning year in August is uncertain. Ewaka is a critically important tool to support learning during this time. When schools do finally reopen, academic terms will assuredly be even more condensed to make up for the content missed during the first and second lockdowns.  As it is almost impossible for children to catch up to lost learning without additional support in such a short duration, Ewaka will be an important remedial support tool to supplement the in-person classroom lessons. The tool will help children assimilate better the lessons and be up to date with the curriculum, thus generating improved learning outcomes.

Ewaka addresses not only remote learners, but the most remote of learners living in rural, last-mile, and poor communities in Uganda – and eventually beyond. Ewaka lessons are delivered on an on-demand basis to anyone with a feature phone, regardless of age, background, or literacy and numeracy levels and provide guided instruction for independent work, thus creating a feedback loop and increasing learners’ commitment. Moreover, parents are usually the main tenants of the household phone, and therefore must ensure their children have access to the phone to participate. In doing so, parents become more invested in their children’s academic success.

At the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, Building Tomorrow Fellows participated in a prototype phase in which they observed 222 learners and their caretakers during lessons. The project design team used the inputs and observations to refine Ewaka, resulting in the launch of our pilot in May 2021.  

Currently, 5,056 learners have been enrolled in Ewaka, distributed among the following districts:

• Adjumani District: 166
• Gomba District: 148
• Kakumiro District: 480
• Kalungu District: 133
• Kamuli District: 331
• Kamwenge District: 301
• Kassanda District: 331
• Kazo District: 242
• Kibaale District: 218
• Kiryandongo District: 210
• Luuka District: 313
• Luweero District: 140
• Lwengo District: 142
• Lyantonde District: 491
• Masindi District: 175
• Mubende District: 193
• Nakaseke District: 321
• Nakasongola District: 348
• Sembabule District: 138
• Wakiso District: 235

Ewaka is the first educational tool of its kind to employ interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities, which is critical in providing distance learning opportunities to underserved communities in Uganda where learning outcomes are extremely poor.  The IVR technology is the backbone of interactive technologies and has mostly been used in fields such as health, but very few organizations, if any, have applied it to education.  BT’s Ewaka program is a pioneering IVR-built innovation where such interventions are needed most – low-income, rural contexts, where high-tech interventions are decades away from being practical or broadly accessible. Because lessons are delivered via IVR and with the use of a numeric touchpad, Ewaka reaches learners who are illiterate or who have caretakers who are illiterate, which is very common in rural Uganda and beyond. The application operates on feature phones and is available in areas without internet. It is automated and on-demand making it a useful remedial and supplementary tool even for children who are in school, but need additional assistance. Ewaka content (numeracy and eventually literacy lessons) has been adapted from Building Tomorrow’s proven Roots to Rise program, itself based on the rigorously evaluated Teaching at the Right Level methodology, which consists of testing learners and providing lessons according to their level rather than their age.

Currently, 5,056 learners are enrolled in Ewaka, of which 52% are female and 48% are male. All learners are currently out of school and 12% of Ewaka learners were not enrolled in school in March 2020, the last time schools in Uganda were fully open.

By the end of 2021, we aim to reach 30,000 learners and enroll them in Ewaka. By the end of 2022 (1 year), we plan to reach 75,000 learners and expand enrollment across the 800 school communities served by our Building Tomorrow Fellows from Cohorts 6 and 7. By the end of 2025 (5 years), we plan to serve 1,500,000 learners through Ewaka.

Building Tomorrow will measure Roots to Rise and Ewaka’s success through the following key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Percentage of learners who moved up by at least one learning level in numeracy (measured through the R2R assessment embedded in the IVR tool)
• Percentage of learners who moved up by at least one learning level in literacy (measured through the R2R assessment embedded in the IVR tool)
• Number of children enrolled in Ewaka (measured through enrollment data tabulated in our Salesforce database)

Main Building Tomorrow support/development team: 8 full-time staff

Building Tomorrow field support staff: 116

External technology partners’ staff: 3

One of Building Tomorrow’s strategic anchors is “locally led and sustainable”; all of our programs are driven by the communities we serve. Seven of the eight members of the Ewaka team are based in Uganda and are Ugandan. They recognized internet-based distance learning is not accessible to rural learners, and saw illiteracy as a considerable challenge. 

The Ewaka project design team worked closely with Building Tomorrow Fellows – promising recent Ugandan university graduates who are immersed in rural communities for two years – to adapt Roots to Rise lessons for telephonic use, and in an understandable way to the end user. Fellows sat with Ewaka learners and their caretakers and observed what worked and what didn’t, and participated in test phases along with 222 learners in late 2020 and early 2021. They surveyed parents and children to understand their preferences and utilized their input to make lessons more user friendly. Findings from the original survey demonstrated the preference for lower-tech tools and informed Ewaka’s design as a phone call-based platform. Among the individuals surveyed with access to a phone, 96% had access to only a non-smart, feature phone. Of those with phone access, 97% were comfortable answering a phone call, while 83% felt comfortable initiating a call. Meanwhile, only 68% of respondents knew how to receive and read SMS messages, 46% knew how to write and send SMS messages, and only 42% knew how to interact with USSD tools. Less than 2.5% knew how to use WhatsApp or Facebook.

All project team members except one are Ugandan, and represent the communities Ewaka serves. They have direct implementation experience and have worked directly with end users to design Ewaka for use by rural community residents, for whom education – and digital connectivity – is all but guaranteed. The Ewaka team meets multiple times weekly, and embraces an equitable model of leadership and collaboration. We seek to uncover, interrogate, and understand differences that make a difference, and we pursue respectful curiosity. The Brr.ng technical platform team is based in Nairobi and are experts in delivering inclusive, human-centered technology solutions to underserved communities.

Roughly 90% of Building Tomorrow operations and program decisions are made in Uganda by the leadership team in Kampala, including training design for Building Tomorrow Fellows and staff, and we have only one non-Ugandan in our Kampala office. Moreover, we ensure at least two-thirds of all Building Tomorrow Fellows are women, thus improving our ability to reach out-of-school girls and young women.

Solve offers a range of resources necessary to the development of the Roots to Rise Ewaka.  Should Building Tomorrow be selected as a finalist, we would benefit from the Solve community’s wealth of expertise to refine and broaden the applicability of our product for use with literacy lessons.  With the support of the partnerships we hope to build and the monetary award, we plan to further support tool refining, translation and adaptation of the Ewaka program to other countries and contexts, but also to develop the tool’s natural language processing (NLP) to incorporate literacy lessons in addition to the existing numeracy lessons. Partners such as Amazon (with its pioneering Alexa product utilizing AI voice technology), Microsoft, and Twilio.org could help in  structuring the technical design of the NLP function and bring the technical support we need for language related development of the innovation. Other partners could support evaluation of Ewaka in Uganda and eventually other contexts, confirming its broad effectiveness in various settings.  Finally, a number of MIT Solve partners are philanthropic and could provide critical resources to support scaling Ewaka.

Ewaka is a new application for IVR technology in the educational sector. As such, its effectiveness in producing measurable learning outcomes for learners is yet undetermined. We are seeking partners that can help develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation plan to: 1) measure long term learning outcomes as a direct result of consistent Ewaka engagement; 2) continuously adapt content to produce greater learning outcomes; 3) identify where technological barriers to use affect learning outcomes.

We are also seeking partners to assist in the continuous development of the technology to make it more accessible and ensure it produces learning outcomes as similar as possible to learning outcomes that would be achieved through in-person instruction. Our target audience of parents/learners has extremely low literacy rates and levels of familiarity with technology, with many only able to initiate or receive a phone call. Such features technology partners can help with include: 1) voice recognition to eliminate the need to be familiar with navigating the phone keypad and for literacy lessons and 2) advanced logic handling to deliver lessons that are finely tailored to the learner’s level of understanding.

There are a number of partners from whom we could learn and with whom we would like to partner. These include:

• M&E, measuring learning outcomes: AutoCognita, Geneva Learning Foundation
• M&E, measuring how the technology affects learning outcomes: Geneva Learning Foundation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
• AI/Voice recognition: Amazon, Microsoft, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
• Making the technology more user-friendly: Amazon, Microsoft, HP, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Twilio.org
• Tailoring content to learner’s level of understanding: AutoCognita, Geneva Learning Foundation

Ewaka is a program tailored to learners who are not able to participate in formal learning opportunities, namely school, and/or whose classroom learning has been disrupted. It is thus an ideal educational tool for refugees and migrants who are not able to access formal education in their host communities due to a variety of barriers to access, and can increase refugees’ resilience and self-reliance through access to foundational learning. Ewaka also serves as an important remedial tool and can supplement in-classroom learning for refugees who may need extra support. Once translated into more languages, Ewaka can serve even more refugee learners.

According to UNHCR, Uganda is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, with 1.4 million refugees, and is the fourth-largest refugee-hosting country in the world. We hope to translate our numeracy lessons into additional languages, and to develop the artificial intelligence needed to add literacy lessons in numerous languages as well, thus allowing refugees living in camps, settlements, and urban areas to pursue their education, regardless of their status or circumstances.  

Ewaka is an interactive voice response-based program that delivers remedial numeracy lessons and soon AI-based literacy lessons to learners from underserved areas of Uganda.  Ewaka can thus supplement core STEM (namely mathematics) lessons received in classrooms and provide additional assistance for those who cannot afford at-home tutors. It also allows rural learners to gain practice in context-appropriate distance education, which could helpfully precede more advanced forms of distance education, if and when internet connectivity, computers, and smartphones become more widely accessible to rural and underserved communities. Ewaka also promotes engagement and commitment from learners as it facilitates independent work through guided instruction and delivers lesson adaptable to any context.

Of the 5,000+ learners currently enrolled in Ewaka, 52% are girls, and we anticipate girls continuing to be the majority of users due to gender-specific barriers in accessing formal education in Uganda and beyond. In Uganda, girls are far more likely to not complete their education for many reasons, including pregnancy, low value attached to girls’ education, and a high level of violence against children, considerably affecting girls in schools (World Bank, 2019). In Uganda, pre-pandemic, a quarter of girls dropped out of school because of pregnancy, with a drop-out percentage of 37% in the East and 32% in the West of the country (Uganda Ministry of Education, 2015). Similarly, 40% of girls drop out of secondary school because of early pregnancy, 28% because of early marriage, and 7% because of the cost of schooling. Studies have identified that 94% of girls experience physical and sexual violence at school (World Bank Group, 2019). COVID-19 and school closures have exacerbated these realities, with early marriage and teen pregnancy on the rise in Uganda and throughout many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Girls enrolled in Ewaka can have access to basic numeracy and literacy lessons on an on-demand basis and thus are adaptable to any situation female learners might be in.

Ewaka is a tool that provides remedial numeracy and soon, literacy lessons to learners who are out of school or who are in school but need additional assistance. The program employs IVR technology for numeracy and we are seeking to develop the AI to provide literacy lessons in the future. Ewaka is currently available in English and we are translating it to three local Ugandan languages.

With the AI for Humanity Prize, we could utilize natural language processing technology to allow the tool to recognize Ugandan accents and dialects necessary to establish Ewaka-based literacy lessons. Additionally, our goal is to expand the program to other countries and contexts, such as additional refugee-hosting countries, to reach any learner who has had their education disrupted. The tool works on feature phones and does not require any digital infrastructure such as internet connectivity. Learners can thus take lessons on an on-demand basis allowing them to pursue education at their pace and gain foundational numeracy and literacy skills.

Ewaka is a tool that provides remedial numeracy and soon, literacy lessons to learners who are out of school or who are in school but need additional assistance. The program employs IVR technology for numeracy and we are seeking to develop the AI to provide literacy lessons in the future. Ewaka is currently available in English and we are translating it to three local Ugandan languages.

With the AI for Humanity Prize, we could utilize natural language processing technology to allow the tool to recognize Ugandan accents and dialects necessary to establish Ewaka-based literacy lessons. Additionally, our goal is to expand the program to other countries and contexts, such as additional refugee-hosting countries, to reach any learner who has had their education disrupted. The tool works on feature phones and does not require any digital infrastructure such as internet connectivity. Learners can thus take lessons on an on-demand basis allowing them to pursue education at their pace and gain foundational numeracy and literacy skills.

Uganda is currently experiencing an unprecedented learning crisis. COVID has once again closed school for approximately 10 million learners, from which 1.2 million were already out-of-school before the pandemic hit. When classes resume, 79% of children in Primary 3 are expected to not be able to read a simple text. Building Tomorrow conceived Ewaka as a COVID-response tool that will allow learners to pursue their numeracy and literacy learning at home, on an on-demand basis, and regardless of their numeracy and literacy skills. The tool functions on feature phones, is user-friendly and provides guided independent work for students to remain engaged in their remote learning. Ewaka is set to deliver lessons anytime, to anyone, in any context and can thus be scaled to other settings such as in refugee sites, and used in future crises that would force school closure.