UjuziNet

In public schools across Africa, classrooms are often overcrowded with shortage of resources. A teacher-to-student ratio of 1:100 while private schools are at 1:30 or more. Lack of enough qualified teachers. Even the students who manage to finish schools majority of them end up being jobless because they lack necessary skills and habits due to weak educational curriculums.

Our Solution is a social franchise education platform that provides cloud-based Software as service solutions, coursework design and infrastructure support to traditional Schools, Vocational Colleges and Institutions  so they may offer flexible and affordable quality educational programs, certificate, short courses, diploma, degree, upskill or reskill to their students online and offline anywhere on the Mobile devices.

Students can learn easily on the mobile devices on the go by themselves or with the help of their parents. We are Marketplaces for Schools and their related programs plus extra curricula skill based courses

Tanzania adult literacy rate is 77.89% which ranks 110th position in the world. Teaching level is still not adequate UNICEF, (2014) 8% of grade 2 pupils could read and only 8% could add or subtract. Youth Unemployment coupled with Skills Shortage in Tanzania and Africa at large is worse. The unemployment rate may be as higher as more than 45%. It is normal to find groups of unemployed youths (School Leavers) engaging in theft, alcoholism, drug abuse and prostitution. At the same time businesses and organizations across the region, employers complain that they cannot find skilled entry-level workers. Based on projection, by the end of the century, almost half of the world's young people will be African. That means Africa's greatest assets; youths could turn out to be its greatest liability due to the following education Challenges:

1.    Weak educational curriculum that does not give the students the necessary skills and habits.

2.    Lack of locally developed educational contents that solve African related challenges.

3.    Lack of Flexibility due to geographical Limitations and expensive educational programs

4.    Overcrowded classrooms with shortage of resources.

5.    Lack of enough qualified teachers that means other Schools are forced to have unqualified teachers.

Our Solution is a social franchise education platform that provides cloud-based Software as service solutions, coursework design and infrastructure support to traditional Schools, Vocational Colleges and Institutions  so they may offer flexible and affordable quality educational programs like  certificate, short courses, diploma, degree, upskill or reskill to their students online and offline anywhere on the Mobile devices.

We partner with both schools and Colleges by going beyond traditional learning, we use tech, people, and data to help traditional schools transform into Mobile and Smart Schools. Our Platform Uses both Web, Mobile Apps, artificial intelligence and SMS for learners not connected to the  internet in rural and low income areas. Students can learn easily on the mobile devices by themselves or with the help of their parents on the go from their registered schools or top performing school of their choice anywhere. And sit for final exams under their registered schools. 

By using the same platform, students can opt to register for extra curricula skill based courses like 4IR and Vocational programs  offered by institutions and industry experts registered in the platform and book tools and workspaces nearest to them for practice; consequently, making youths self employed and employable.

My Solution focus is Africa but starting point is Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. Our target groups include the following:

1.  Primary and Secondary Students in Urban areas both from public and private Schools. By partnering with Schools both Primary, Secondary and Vocational Schools and transforming them into Mobile and Smart Schools we make quality education accessible and affordable to all. We enable Schools to offer their programs online or hybrid learning to reach this group. Students can access online programs using their parent's mobile devices by themselves or with the help of their parents. During our interview with our  first 20 pilot students based in urban using virtual learning, both students and their parents were interested in paying less for virtual than in person learning. As part of our commitment , we are bending back the curve to make quality education more affordable for students. 
2. Students in Rural Communities with no access to internet. For this category, we use USSD technology and create personalized learning experiences using artificial intelligence and SMS for learners in low and rural income areas who need it the most. We use an adaptive learning engine that personalizes lessons for students to help them get to where they need to be. And then we also analyze the data and provide insights and recommendations to their parents, teachers and school.
   We believe that through this approach, we are able to improve learning outcomes for students and create better opportunities for them – especially for the students who need it the most.
3.  School Leavers with 15+ years old and Graduates. Majority of these youths are Unemployed due to lack proper skills required by employer or soft skills to develop their own businesses, in the end they engage  in theft, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution and much worse. At the same time, businesses and organizations across the region, employers complain that they cannot find skilled entry-level worker, given the poor education systems.  With skill based courses from Vocational Colleges, this group will be equipped with skills  to direct their youthful energies towards productive and fulfilling employments. My Customer Arcetype on this group is Johanes and is 17 years old, graduate of education but he has been struggling for more than 6 years to get employed by government unsuccessful. He is now looking to learn a short course on food processing from Sokoine University which is based in Morogoro, very far from Iringa. He cannot afford to travel to that location for the training. He only have Tshs. 35,000 in his pocket which is not enough for bus fair and accommodation. This person is introduced to www.UjuziNet.co.tz  , that he can learn this course from comfort of his home with only Tshs.25,000 from Sokoine University in video format, reference materials, pdf and full support and book tools and workspaces nearest to him for practice.
4. Professional and Corporate Organizations.
5. Entrepreneurs and Farmers. 

My Solution is in alignment to 1, 2 and 4 Challenges in the following ways:

We know that most of the students from Schools located in remote areas and rural areas were denied the opportunity to learn from the best and their Schools lack technological ability to support online learning. With UjuziNet Platform we power these schools with cloud based software and USSD technologies to enable them offer their students with affordable quality and skill based education even in low connectivity settings at the same time Students can access curricula based contents from other performing schools registered in the platform

We are in the Pilot Stage and Currently we are operating in Tanzania with 15  Colleges and Schools using our Online Platform serving 1550 registered Students. 

We also have 14 Private Instructors(Industry experts) selling their skill based courses targeting  both Students, Graduates, Entrepreneurs and Farmers. 

This is our platform in web App format : www.UjuziNet.com 

Our Solution is innovative in the following ways:

• First, we have built the platform in a way that it provides access to quality education online and offline using both SMS(USSD), Mobile Apps and Web Apps and easy to use even in the low connectivity settings.
• Second, We are social franchise. We partner with local entrepreneurs in education sector in other African countries and we train them on how to scale the platform in their countries based on their culture, language, Local Contents and demand. With this model we are able to reach many students of Africa in the shortest time.
• Third,  we have developed an artificial intelligence system and ChatBot software on our learning platform that understands each individual child’s competency and delivers the right lesson for them at the right time. The platform matches the learner to the right lesson at the level that they need. The student learns and grows with lesson content tailored for them through mobile Apps, web or SMS on their parent’s phone.

Within 3 Months we have managed to reach 15 Schools using our e learning platform with 1550 registered Students. Our aim is to transform traditional Schools into Mobile Schools to provide easy access to affordable and quality education for all in partnership with traditional schools, vocational colleges and Universities. 

In the next one year we plan to transform 250 traditional Schools into Mobile Schools to reach out 50,000 students with affordable and quality education plus skill based courses accessible for all 50,000 students using our platform. 

In the next 5 years to come , we plan to transform 1250 traditional Schools into Mobile Schools with 250,000 Students registered with affordable and quality education plus skill based courses accessible for all 250,000 Students. 

We measure our progress by the partnerships we have been able to make or are working to build.

Each partner represents more than 200 students to be reached and impacted.

With only 15 partners that we currently have, we have managed to reach and impact 1550 students.

That means, when we reach 250 partner schools in the next year it means we will reach and impact atleast 50,000 students.

And when we reach 1250 partner schools in next five years, it means we will reach and impact at least 250,000 students.

How are we going to measure our programs performance and impacts on student’s lives?

Our platform produces reports of every student that manage to graduate from particular program registered by a related school. We will Measure progress & performance using qualitative & quantitative assessments, quizzes, examinations, Coursework, practice and more. 

We have the following team:

Full Time Staff: 8. 

Part Time Staff: 4. 

We do not have any contractors at the moment. 

We have team of 3 software and database programmers as inhouse team solely responsible for development of this platform and one of them is our Chief Technical Officer with more than 12 years of experience.

Our Company CEO is one of the experienced business developer and educator who have worked to various education  institutions for more than 15 years experience. 

Other team includes Sales and Finance Experts with more than 5 experience and education experts who have worked with colleges and institutions as teachers and trainers. 

In short our team is comprised with the following skills:

• Software and Database Programming Skills.
• Business Management and Leadership
• Sales, Marketing, Communication and Digital Marketing Skills. Finance and  Data Analytics Skills
• Education experts 

We collaborate with many organizations and groups in education sectors like Educators, teachers, government education agencies and private and public schools owners. 

My team with our  Vitrace Company Limited have been working in education sector for more than 7 years. From our experience we saw challenges in education sector and 2021 we decided to come up with UjuziNet Platform to support Schools and Colleges based on the pain points learned .

We work with all people from different backgrounds with any gender, religions and tribes. However we put more emphasis on the performance and dedication to make quality education accessible to all .

Our team comprises of 50% female and 50% male from three Countries, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. We embrace diversity and value each team passion and talents to achieve our goals. 

We are building pan African e learning platform that recognize talents and brings together people of all races based on talents, commitment and vision to transform African Education Sector.

We are looking for global Education partners in technology. We are applying to SOLVE hoping to get connections with those partners including SOLVE as potential partners.

We believe that through SOLVE we will be able to partner with various local and global schools to share their programs in our platforms.  And if we win the Prize , our company will have more credibility and easy to get educational partners to share their contents for our Students. We want to provide access to quality and affordable education to all. We cannot do it on our own. We need Schools both local and international Schools, Institutions like MIT  and investors. We will use the funding for advertising and reaching out more school partners which also includes empowering schools on the power of technology in their programs. 

We looking for partners and  support in financial and fundraising. We are young startup looking to connect with mentors and advisors in financial and fundraising strategies. We are committed to empowering traditional schools into Smart schools. We need experts like SOLVE and MIT to achieve this goal.

We want to get known globally as Pan African E learning Platform like Udemy , Edx and other e learning platforms. To achieve this goal, we need partners like SOLVE and other experts in branding/marketing strategy, social and global media to get known and reach out many Schools and Institutions.

We know that MIT is best known for its program in engineering, sciences and technology. We are looking to have partners in technology and servicing distribution. We believe through SOlVE we will be able to get known to make our innovation impactful. 

We would like to partner with MIT Online Classes, MIT Media Lab, Stanford University, Local and International Schools from Africa, Vocational Colleges and Institutions from Africa and other educational contents providers like Khan Academy. We believe through these partners we will be able to reach out many students using our innovative solution. We will be able to get  advice from them how online and mobile learning can best be engaging and transformative.

We are e learning platform that is customizable for any learning purposes. We have developed the platform in such a way that professional trainers and Institutions can create contents in  economic, financial, and political inclusion for refugees or any group. 

We partners with educationists in various sectors from Schools, Colleges, Institutions and industry experts to give  learners the opportunity to acquire useful skills as well as talent coaching through online classes and offline practice opportunities.

With UjuziNet anyone can be equipped with relevant practical skills to be a productive employee or an entrepreneur from finance, economic, political or any other topic. Learners can learn easily on their mobile devices or computers and also book tools and workspaces nearest to them for practice; 

Refugees from Africa who seeks to improve their lives through learning, with only mobile phones on their hands they can access tailor made contents with personalized learning experiences using artificial intelligence. We use an adaptive learning engine that personalizes lessons for students to help them get to where they need to be and learn what they need to learn. And then we also analyze the data and provide insights and recommendations for more improvements. 

We believe that through this approach, we are able to improve learning outcomes for refugees and create better opportunities for them – especially for the those who need it the most.

We qualify for this Challenge because we use Artificial Intelligence technology. 

As EdTech company we partner with traditional Schools and Institutions to transform them into Smart Schools by supplying them with cloud based software that uses artificial intelligence and SMS to deploy tailored education content for children in sub-Saharan Africa. We help Schools create personalized learning experiences for their students using artificial intelligence. 

Our Platform  uses an adaptive learning engine that personalizes lessons for students to help them get to where they need to be and what they need to learn. And finally we analyze the data and provide insights and recommendations to their parents, teachers and schools. 

We use both web Apps, Mobile Apps and USSD platforms. 

We qualify for this Challenge because we use Artificial Intelligence technology. 

As EdTech company we partner with traditional Schools and Institutions to transform them into Smart Schools by supplying them with cloud based software that uses artificial intelligence and SMS to deploy tailored education content for children in sub-Saharan Africa. We help Schools create personalized learning experiences for their students using artificial intelligence. 

Our Platform  uses an adaptive learning engine that personalizes lessons for students to help them get to where they need to be and what they need to learn. And finally we analyze the data and provide insights and recommendations to their parents, teachers and schools. 

We use both web Apps, Mobile Apps and USSD platforms. 

We will use the funding advertising and promotion, technology improvement and advancement and empowering our educational partners on how to use our innovation to reduce cost, increase sales and improve performance of many students

As an E learning Platform working in partnership with Schools, Vocational Colleges and Institutions plus industry experts in various field which also includes Blockchain. 

We qualify for this Prize in the following ways: 

Payment: We believe the power of blockchain in transforming lives. We plan to use Blockchainin various payments by encouraging our partners to do the same. Currently all our payments are made through banks and mobile money like M pesa, we plan to use blockchain in both local and international transactions. We know that this technology promises to facilitate fast, secure, low-cost international payment processing services (and other transactions) through the use of encrypted distributed ledgers that provide trusted real-time verification of transactions without the need for intermediaries such as correspondent banks and clearing .

Education: We plan to work in partnership with industry experts in BlockChain or related Innovations to offer online courses to our fellow Africans who are lagging behind on this topic. Our President from United republic of Tanzania, openly said that our nation need to get prepared for these technologies like Blockchain. We plan to take this opportunity to make Blockchain knowledge contents accessible to anyone in Tanzania and Africa at large.