STEM learning for underprivileged, rural Sarawak students

DTLJ wishes to resume STEM tuition for students in off-grid rural Sarawak where there is no internet connection.

The systemic problems that persist over many decades in Baram, Sarawak include no supply of clean water, electricity and internet. DTLJ's STEM tuition programme's aim is to provide access to quality STEM learning, narrowing the digital gap, and finally, break the poverty cycle.

Our students acquire digital skills by using an off-line Open source universal learning platform, mainly Khan Academy, to learn Sciences, Math, and English, and soon basic Programming classes. After almost four years, we see promising results among our 200 students, of which 70% are girls.

In 2017, we initially utilize the KA Lite software stack and migrated to the peer to peer architecture on Kolibri in 2019. By switching to Kolibri, we saved on hardware infrastructure, where initially, it is being bottlenecked at number of clients per server (Raspberry pi3) deployed.  Please see VIDEO of Testimonial of tuition programme.

The problem now is that lack of devices forces us to put on hold STEM learning altogether due to school closure following the pandemic. Without internet coverage, students who are learning at home are not able to even continue studying their local syllabuses due to a lack of devices. DTLJ's stopgap measures were to support the costs of teachers sending materials physically to students in the interiors. We find this unsustainable, very costly, and dangerous for our teachers as they are forced to go through tough terrains every four months. Please see our Youtube video of this effort.

Problem now is that lack of devices forces us to stop the STEM learning altogether. Without internet coverage, students who are now learning at home are not able to even continue studying their local syllabuses due to absence of internet and devices. Instead, teachers are forced to go through tough terrains every four months to deliver materials physically to students, We find this unsustainable, very costly, and dangerous for our teachers: see our video of this effort  

Our solution will allow students to continue learning of STEM and local syllabuses by bringing the devices on foot home as the offline Open source Kolibri platform will be preinstalled in the device, allowing students to access learning materials even without the internet. When school reopens, students are expected to bring back the devices to campus, for the continuation of STEM tuition and soon basic programming.

The systemic problems for the students in Ulu Baram, Sarawak include no supply of clean water, electricity and internet.

There are even times students have to study without working fans as school ran out diesel to power their generators. Internet and supply of clean pipe water is unheard of at many of these schools. It is normal to see science labs and schools library that are depleted. Until now, the population in Baram still depend on harvesting rain as source of water and including most of the 70 schools in the rural Baram, including SMK TLDJ. All 70 schools are powered by unsustainable diesel generators.

With such systemic problems, it is not easy to incentivise students or teachers to introduce learning STEM using technology. 

DTLJ's tuition programme was the first and only STEM tuition using tech in the rural Baram. Since 2017, the programmer helped the 200 students improved in their Stem grades as well as increase Students School attendance, Students’ Pyscho social (for example confidence in public speaking in English etc) and Students’ individual progress in class. DTLJ has shared its success story to the rest of the school community, and it is our hope that all schools are able to replicate such programme at their respective schools. Our initiative has been endorsed by the State government. Please read link https://www.theborneopost.com/2017/08/29/cm-stresses-on-use-https://www.theborneopost.com/2017/08/29/cm-stresses-on-use-of-internet-connectivity-for-teaching-of-stem-subjects/of-internet-connectivity-for-teaching-of-stem-subjects/

There are very little quality or/and universal learning opportunities for the underpriviledged students in rural Sarawak. 

DTLJ's tuition programme has proven to improve the grades in Stem subjects and command of English among the students. Our target is students aged between 12 and 14 years old and they are expected to be on the programme for five years. Instilling the use of technology and universal learning to learn Stem is a long-term commitment for us as we want to see higher number of Stem graduates from this community. We hope these graduates then return to give back to their community by developing solutions for our systemic problems such as clean water, electricity, agritech and more.

Over the years, our solution has been consistent by using offline open-source software. We are able to achieve this is from a KA-Lite software stack to a peer-to-peer infrastructure ie KOLIBRI, which allows students to carry on foot an android tablet home and access quality learning materials even without the internet. Nonetheless, there were challenges.

We owe it to our full-time teachers, who stay in the school compound until semester breaks. Because the school is in rural area (Kampung Long San, Baram Sarawak), the students stay in dormitory and teachers stay at their quarters. Thus far, the attendance of students and teacher turnover is not an issue as there is no disincentive factors.

We have overcame the challenge of using English Language by training our teachers, supplied books and dictionaries, including dual language books.

Isabelle Francis led the launch of the programme in 2017 through fundraising and engagement of stakeholders(teachers, institutional sponsors), believes tech can leapfrog the underserved community.

We find Kolibri innovative because it can reach the most remote communities, as a device can be carried by foot to share installers, updates, and content with other devices over local networks. Our teachers also find the platform is easy to nagivate and it allows them to design their own lessons using Kolibri studio. We believe rural schools to take leaf from DTLJ's programme and so many other organisations globally in using Kolibri to bring universal learning to underserved communities.

Yes. We have 200 students in our programme since 2017.

We initially utilize the KA Lite Software stack in 2017. In 2019, we reduced server and hardware requirements due to the client-server architecture in KA Lite to the peer to peer architecture on Kolibri. Currently, the tablets deployed are Android based tablets. We believe that switching to Kolibri, based on the proposed architecture would save on hardware infrastructure, where currently, it is being bottlenecked at number of clients per server (Raspberry pi3) deployed.

With Kolibri, it is hoped that it would be easier to maintain and scale, based on peer-to-peer architecture and distribution, rather than relying on the scaling of the server side infrastructure to grow with the number of classes. We forsee that the experience of the teachers on site with KA Lite would make switching over to Kolibri a relatively straightforward task, and scaling of the infrastructure would only be networking scaling to support more devices per access point.

We already have basic networking infrastructure in place which support up to about 200 devices and we need more tablets and wireless access points to scale out to more students in the school. If the peer to peer model is not available, we would also need additional Raspberry pi servers to scale out infrastructure wise.

Education is both the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and opening the door to human flourishing. There are now more quality, free, open educational resources online than ever before.However, rural students are disconnected.

studies have been made on "Assessing the use of technology and Khan Academy to improve educational outcomes in Sacatepéquez, Guatemala"
as link attached below

https://learningequality.org/m....

-Students School/tuition attendance

-Students’ Pyscho social (confidence in reading in English etc)
-Students’ individual progress in class

Based on our track record,we aim to continue enrolling at least 50 students per year into the programme and see an increase of STEM undergraduates and graduates from the community over five years. 

We would achieve this by procuring more devices while leveraging on our current infrastructure and teacher support system.

Devices, chargers

DTLJ needs to raise fund to procure the devices and other hardware such as solar-powered chargers and deliver them to students. We also need financial support the transport of devices to rural areas.

The Trust namesake, the late YAM Dato Seri Senator Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau (DTOLJ) who was not able to receive formal tertiary education himself, always emphasized on how important education is, also how important it is to progress with purpose and solidarity.

DTOLJ had donated a piece of his land to build the very first schools in Baram. The DTLJ Education Trust  is here to carry on this legacy for the progress and development of the
Orang Ulu community.
The DTLJ Education Trust has four charters:
1) Providing opportunity for education the children of the Orang Ulu community.
2) Providing opportunity for special education the children of the Orang
Ulu community
3) Preservation of culture of the Orang Ulu community and promote cultural heritage
as tool to relief poverty.
4) Youth development of the Orang Ulu community.

The motivation of the initiative are the systemic problems for the Orang Ulu children & youth in Ulu Baram. These problems include no clean water, electricity and internet.

More than 10 volunteers. We have no paid workers.

DTLJ team knows Baram, Sarawak best as we grew up with the community. We understand and speak their language, know their culture, families and needs.

We are supported by two different institutional organisations and sponsors and our programme is also endorsed and recognised by the Sarawak state government. 

By providing quality content to STEM learning, we are changing the status quo of this underserved community that has been living without access to clean water, electricity and internet for more than 50years. Our STEM tuition is a tough yet doable solution that aims to break the poverty cycle through education and empowering youth with digital skills. 

With the advancement of the digital economy, the digital and poverty gap is widening (amplified by the recent pandemic). We simply can't afford to wait for incremental developments of roads, telco towers etc just to get access to the internet, quality universal learning etc. We can already achieve that today by way of using offline and open-source technology. Octava and MIT can be part of this change and help the community leapfrog into the 4.0 era.

We need support both in cash and kind to sustain the programme over the next 10 years. As well as providing STEM content relevant to the community.