Schoolinka

According to a UNESCO Statistics report of 2019, it was stated that 1 out of 3 teachers in Africa lack training, and 60% of primary six pupils can not read and write in the official language of instruction in countries like Nigeria. It is an agreed fact that quality education begins with qualified teachers who deliver good lessons so that students can learn. However, the percentage of trained teachers has been steadily falling across sub-Saharan Africa. From 85% to 64% at the primary level and from 79% to 50% at the secondary level. 

Poor teaching quality is worsening the state of education in the continent, thereby hindering us from achieving Goal 4 (Quality Education) of the SDGs. In Nigeria, 27,000 teachers failed a test meant for grade four students and this is very alarming. 

If we must ensure that quality education is delivered across the continent, then we need to invest more in teacher education, as teachers can only give what they have. However, many teachers especially in low-income schools are not able to access continuous professional development either as a result of unaffordability or inaccessibility in terms of location barriers. This is because most training programs happen in cities and only teachers in high-brow schools can afford to attend them, thereby leaving about 65% of the education community (teachers and students) situated in remote and low-income communities out of opportunities to learn how to create quality learning experiences.

Schoolinka is an Edtech organization that is solving the problem of poor teaching quality in Africa by powering the continuous professional development of teachers and school leaders with technology. We deploy artificial intelligence to identify the training needs of educators, suggest online courses hosted on our platform that will equip them with the required skills, and also help these educators access better paying teaching jobs with our partner schools. 

Our solution is democratizing learning for teachers and school leaders, especially those working in low-income schools who can’t afford traditional teacher training programs; improving the quality of the teaching workforce in Africa and thereby ensuring that students irrespective of their socioeconomic backgrounds have access to better learning experiences.

Teachers sign up on our online learning platform to take online courses that are created by educators with experience and expertise and teacher training organizations, earn certifications and use the skills acquired to transform their classrooms. These courses are taken in a self-paced manner and the teachers themselves have total control of their learning.

While teachers take these online courses, we also offer instructor-led masterclasses that are delivered virtually or in - person where teachers have the opportunity to learn in a live class, engage with our expert faculty and build lifelong relationships within our educators’ community.

Our technology offers a very cost-effective way to train teachers - reducing the cost of teacher training by 90%, as the courses need to be created only once but can be offered to teachers millions of times and in many years to come as long as the content stays relevant. With economies of scale, we are able to spread the cost of production of these courses over millions of educators across the continent. As a result of this, teachers can now access premium courses taught by the top 1% of experts for as low as 3 USD/month.

Currently, our community is growing at 3,000+ educators, 200 members of faculty and growth associates, and we look forward to tripling this growth in the next three months.

Direct Beneficiaries (Paying Customers):

• Teachers

Our solution is primarily targeted at low-income teachers in primary and secondary schools across Africa. This set of teachers represents around 80% - 90% of the entire primary and secondary education workforce in the region. Our work started as a response to the problem of lack of teaching quality. We wanted those at home to be confident of those standing in front of their kids in the classroom. As we created in-person learning programs for these teachers, the positive results we recorded prompted us to start thinking of scaling. With our solution, teachers are able to access professional development opportunities through online courses for free or almost free. The economies of scale built into our learning model have made it very cost-effective for us to create and offer learning programs for teachers. Also, teachers do not have to travel to get trained, as a teacher in Nigeria can take a course created by another experienced educator in South Africa without leaving the comfort of their homes.

• Schools

Schools have always grappled with the challenge of finding the best way to train their teachers. While many are concerned about the cost, some are thinking of the time needed to host training programs. Our solution has given schools the opportunity to offer training to their teachers at a very low fee and also in a self-paced manner.

Finding the best teachers can also be a very herculean task for schools. This is why our School Partnership Program offers the best school recruitment service for schools as they now have access to our pool of teaching talents.

Indirect Beneficiaries: 

• Students

There is a very low literacy rate in Africa and while this is caused by many factors, poor teaching quality happens to be a major factor. We have worked with over 2,500 teachers and this work has helped us reach more than 16,000 students across Africa. As we engage with teachers and schools and build their capacity, the bottom line of our work is ensuring that students are well taught and enjoy quality learning experiences irrespective of their socioeconomic backgrounds.

As the founder of Schoolinka, I worked as a teacher in an underserved school in a low-income community for two years, and starting Schoolinka was my response to the myriad of education challenges I witnessed firsthand. As someone who lived in rural communities all my life and went through the poor public school system and understands the transformative power of education, I am deeply passionate about ensuring that every child is able to access an excellent education irrespective of their socioeconomic background.

Currently, we are a small team with over 50 combined years of experience working in education development and technology. 90% of my team members have had experience teaching in the classroom - working with K-12 students, and designing teacher training programs, especially for educators in hard-to-reach communities.

We value feedback a lot, and we have built in mechanisms into our platform to collect feedback from people who interact with our learning programs. These feedbackc have been incorporated into the design of our courses and online learning platform. We also hold small group conversations with our community of educators where we learn about their challenges and training needs and take that back to our curriculum and course development process.

Digital Divide: The huge digital divide in Africa is a big barrier to our solution as teachers in the most remote parts of the continent without access to technology and electricity might find it challenging to access our learning programs. However, we are working to mitigate this by creating offline versions of our platform that can be synced once with the internet and be accessed from then onwards offline. We will be happy to connect with Solve's ecosystem, particularly those in the eLearning industry who can share ideas on how they have tackled this challenge in their own contexts.

Completion Rate: The Elearning industry has a poor completion rate of courses and this has been one of the biggest challenges in this work. Our team is working hard to test different forms of course designs and delivery to uncover best practices and also identify the type of course designs that bring about the highest completion rates. It is our expectation that we access insights from the Solver’s program to increase our course completion rate.

Funding: This has been a great challenge for the team as we need funds to build our core team, get more experts onboard, create more engaging learning programs and market it wide to teachers across Africa. Access to funding is very crucial to expanding our reach and scaling this solution which we have proof that it works. The $10,000 from Solve and the other funding pathways that we will have access to as participants in the program will move us close to this goal.

System-level Partnerships: To be able to design better learning programs, we are looking forward to partnering with teacher training organizations - institutions, colleges, faculties, and universities of Education. We also understand that for us to create change on a large scale, we need the governments and education boards, and partnering with these entities has been a big challenge as a result of the bureaucracy that is prevalent in the public system. With validation from an organization like MIT Solve, we are assured of access to a network of Higher Ed institution providers – and even ease of navigating complex bureaucratic institutions for partnerships.

There are many organizations and individuals who offer professional development opportunities to teachers in Africa, and while they are doing a great job helping teachers become more competent, their programs are often inaccessible by the majority of teachers either due to location barriers or unaffordability on the part of the teachers.

Our solution is not a direct competitor of the aforementioned individuals and organizations, rather our differentiation lies in our ability to become the infrastructure that all of these players need to scale their work. Our technology is democratizing learning for teachers by ensuring that learning is delivered to them conveniently, even in their own homes. Since we leverage economies of scale that is powered by technology, we are better positioned to offer these quality learning experiences for almost free thereby enabling every educator to access training without any barrier.

Technology is a game-changer for us and it has proven that it has the potential to scale quality learning rapidly, following the success of organizations like Udemy, Coursera, edX, etc. We are replicating this success with teachers and school leaders by being their one-stop-shop for quality continuous professional development. Our focus on teachers and school leaders have differentiated us from other conventional online learning platforms.

Our priority is impact and we place that before profit. We understand that we need to be financially sustainable, however, our team is really invested in finding other creative ways to fund our work by offering add-on services and also building partnerships with individuals and organizations; and this has helped us reach many more teachers without placing the burden of cost on them.

To recap, there are three big indicators of our uniqueness and they are:

• Cost-effectiveness

• Limitless reach through technology

• High potential for scaling quality teacher training and thereby helping millions of students access quality learning.

One Year Impact Goals:

Overarching goal: Our goal in terms of reach is to enroll 50,000 teachers on our learning platform in the next one year, thereby having the potential of improving the learning experiences of over 2,500,000 students. We will do this by focusing on the following:

• Build a standard training curriculum for three educators’ pathways – Pre-service teachers, In-service teachers, and School Leaders: We are working with educators and teacher training consultants to develop a curriculum that will equip educators with the skills they need to power quality learning for their students and to also build strong and resilient schools.

• Develop course contents: After the curriculum is built, our learning team will begin to develop course contents – shoot course videos, create engaging visual content, and easy-to-understand text materials that will be uploaded on our online learning platform.

• Move out of Beta version of our online platform: Our tech team has begun to incorporate the user feedback we have gathered into our tech platform, as we work towards moving out of our beta version into a standard product in the next three months.

• Powerful Storytelling and Marketing: We will tell stories of the impacts we are making in the classrooms and also use these stories to compel other educators to join our community. We will also be using this to access more resources that support our scale.

Five Year Impact Goals:

Overarching goal: In five years, we will scale our product to three other countries in East and Southern Africa and reach 500,000 teachers with a potential of 25,000,000 students having access to improved learning experiences as a result of our work. Our big focuses for these five years will be:

• Contextualizing Learning Experiences: We will begin the work of contextualizing learning experiences for teachers and this includes but is not limited to translating our English course contents to other continental languages such as French, Swahili, Arabic, etc. It can also mean using more representative identities and stories in our course contents that will appeal to the countries we are scaling into.

• Leveraging Partnerships: We will be reaching out to various stakeholders such as schools, governments, teacher clusters, etc., to begin partnerships that will create opportunities for us to offer our learning programs to many more teachers and school leaders in the continent.

• Increasing User base: Our team will work hard over the next five years to increase the user base of our platform. Our user base comprises both educators who create learning experiences and the teachers who partake in the learning experiences. This we will do by initiating a lot of recruitment programs in partnership with schools and influential educators.

• Marketing: We will be investing more in the marketing of our online courses for teachers across Africa using both digital and traditional methods.

Two major assumptions underlying our projections:

1. The increasing rate of internet penetration in Africa

2. The increased focus on creating opportunities for continuous professional development for teachers by schools and governments in Africa and the big search for cost-effective models across the region, to cater for educators in low-income schools.

The following are the SDGs targets and indicators that guide our work:

SDG 4: Quality Education

Target 4.c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States

SDG 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Framework for Measurement and Evaluation of these indicators:

Beyond the technology and how easy the users can navigate it, our research team will focus on evaluating the impact of our online courses on teachers' professional growth, the quality of learning that children receive in their classrooms, government and institutional investments in educators’ continuous professional development, 

Our research will build a monitoring and evaluation framework that has the following indicators to measure:

1. Perceptions of teachers' supervisors and school leaders on the effectiveness of teachers with Schoolinka certifications.

2. Rate of improvement in the academic and behavioral outcomes of students taught by teachers with Schoolinka certifications.

3. Number of teachers with Schoolinka certifications who got promoted at work.

4. Number of teachers with Schoolinka certifications who access better teaching jobs.

5. Number of school partnerships built with Schoolinka.

6. Number of state and national government level partnerships built Schoolinka.

7. Amount of funding and technical support received from institutional partners and growth year on year.

8. Any other relevant indicators.

We will be measuring these using focus group observations, baseline and end-line surveys, interviews, school visitations, school academic and attendance records, partnership trackers, funding milestones, etc.

Theory of Change: Statement          

If we break down the barriers hindering teachers from accessing continuous professional development using technology, then teachers will be able to acquire skills that will make them highly effective and fit into the teaching workforce, and they will be able to power quality learning for millions of students in their classrooms.

Theory of Change: Logic Model              

TOC Indicators & Data Collection Methods        

Outcomes

Metric (indicator)

Data collection tool 

Teachers’ ease of access (cost and location effective) to continuous professional development through technology.

###p#< Growth in number of online platform users.###p#< of users having good experience using our learning platform.

• Training/Course Attendance

• User Database

• Focus Group Discussions

Increased participation of teachers in continuous professional development.

###p#< of teachers with increased access to training.###p#< Growth in number of online platform users.

• User Database

Improved Students’ Outcomes (Academics and Behavioural)

###p#< increase in academic and behavioral performance of students.

• Students’ Assesment

• Teacher and Classroom Observation

System Change

• Students will enjoy better and improved learning experiences.

• Teachers will be able to access training easily and affordably, as all barriers hindering training are already eradicated by the Schoolinka platform.

• Government and Schools will have better ROI on training teachers as they will spend less using Schoolinka's technology to provide quality training.

• Our platform helps teacher training institutions reach more teachers and also closes the partnership gaps between all these institutions.

Our solution is an online learning platform that is powered by Artificial Intelligence which helps to identify teacher training gaps and provides intelligent suggestions of courses that teachers should take to acquire the skills they lack.

This solution is delivered through web-based applications that can be accessed both on mobile phones and computers.

We are also building a USSD powered platform and a solar-powered dongle device that will provide educators with offline access to our training programs, and also remain useful in communities where there is very limited access to electricity.

Diversity: Currently, our team is made up of 75% females and we work towards ensuring that all genders are very well represented in our team make-up. This will inform our hiring strategies and team-building decisions. Individuals from all races and ethnic backgrounds are welcome to apply for opportunities at Schoolinka, and we do not discriminate against any specific group of persons. We are an equal opportunity employer organization.

Equity: It is our practice to meet people where they are with the opportunities they need to thrive. We understand that not everyone will be at the same level, and so we strive to ensure that we meet everyone within our community at their levels and provide the support they need to advance.

Inclusion: This is a big principle, especially with how we do our work as a team and even how we design our learning experiences. We have built-in screen reader features in our platform that help visually impaired people navigate our content. We are also very aware of different cultural contexts and we incorporate these into the design of learning experiences and also into how we define accommodation for team members.

The road to creating an organization that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, where people feel they belong is an everlasting one. We’re excited to experience the effect these practices will have on our entire organization, and though we recognize that the changes we are seeking won’t happen overnight, we will proceed until they are realized.

Revenue Streams/Core Product Offerings:

• Online Learning: Teachers who sign up on our platform will access high quality training courses and also be able to attend every available masterclass covering a wide range of topics at a subscription fee of $3/month.

• Peer Mentoring: Our platform will be a tool for matching teachers and volunteer mentors. Volunteer mentors are educators with experience and expertise who are willing to provide support to other teachers in areas of defining personal career trajectories in education.

• School Recruitment: Our pool of well-trained teachers will serve as a talent source for schools in Africa that are looking for exceptional talents to join their workforce. We will be offering recruitment services to schools at a fee.

Potential future offerings:

• Schoolinka’s Data: Our product will gather data that will be useful in informing education research, policy, and intervention design by governments and education entrepreneurs. As we grow, we will be in a strategic position to work with multi-stakeholders in the education sector to develop initiatives that improve the learning experience across the region.

Customer Segments

Schoolinka has a multi-sided business model, with three interdependent customer segments that are both needed in order to operate:

• Instructors/Facilitators: Individuals and Organisations who create online courses, design instructor-led online classes and in-person training programs for teachers on topics in which they have expertise.

• Students: Teachers who are interested in taking online courses and/or participating in instructor-led online classes and in-person training programs.

• Schools: Schools that are in need of quality teachers to join their workforce

• Government: State and national governments will enroll their school workforce in Schoolinka’s training programs and will be needing our user-generated data to inform their education intervention designs.

• Institutional Partners: These are organizations that provide the resources we need to do our work.

Value Proposition

Schoolinka offers six primary value propositions: accessibility, customization, convenience, price, cost reduction, and quality.

Schoolinka creates accessibility by giving consumers the opportunity to take courses or attend training programs that might not be available or are too expensive in other channels. Also, courses will be available in four major languages spoken in Africa (English, French, Portuguese, Swahili) and there is a wide variety of content that broadens and deepens the knowledge base of teachers that empowers them to provide world class education to their students . It offers access to experts by enabling them to connect with teachers seeking professional development.

Schoolinka enables customization by allowing instructors to personalize the programs they create using state-of-the-art course design tools. They are encouraged to experiment over time.

Schoolinka offers convenience for instructors by handling all customer service and payment processing. It does so for teachers by enabling them to view the courses on any device (computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) at any time (while online or offline) and attend physical training programs that happen right in their community. Also, schools can now find quality teachers to join their workforce without having to do anything.

Schoolinka provides a price value proposition. It limits the cost of all courses and training programs to subscription fee of $3/month.

Schoolinka reduces costs. Its design tools for instructors are free for them to use, and it absorbs all website hosting fees and all logistic expenses for physical training programs. Schools do not have to spend a dime advertising their job vacancies as they can always access a highly targeted pool of teachers in the Schoolinka community.

Schoolinka ensures quality by partnering with educators and organizations with experience and expertise in teacher development to develop our online courses and training programs, and we also satisfy schools' recruitment needs by helping them find top-notch teachers to join their teaching workforce.

Channels

Schoolinka's main channels are our online learning platform, USSD powered LMS, learning dongles, third-party video conferencing tools, and our physical learning centers. We promote our offering through our social media pages, advertising, attendance of conferences, and the school networks we belong to.

Customer Relationships

Schoolinka's customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature and then a call centre where customers can call to make inquiries on our offerings. Customers utilize the service through its website and mobile apps while having limited interaction with employees on phone calls. Also, our website provides answers to frequently asked questions.

That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of 24/7 e-mail support.

Key Activities

Schoolinka's business model entails maintaining a robust common platform between three parties:  instructors, students and schools. The platform includes websites, mobile apps, and physical learning centres. Our major activities include:

• Designing online courses and training programs for teachers

• Marketing online courses and training programs to teachers and schools

• Measuring impact of our work

• Building our community of teachers

• Offering recruitment services to schools

Key Partners

Schoolinka often forms partnerships with teacher training institutions in order to expand its portfolio of offerings in terms of online courses and training programs. It also partners with schools to help them recruit and train their workforce.

Schoolinka also forms partnerships with governments, nonprofits and non-governmental organizations through which it offers training programs to teachers living and working in remote communities.

Key Resources

Schoolinka's main resources are its human resources. They include the technology employees that create the design tools used by instructors for their courses, the program associates who lead various teacher training programs online and offline,  the instructors/facilitators who design the learning experience, the growth team who identifies and explores opportunities for scale, and the customer service employees that provide 24/7 support for users.

Cost Structure

Schoolinka has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation and low-price value propositions. Its biggest cost driver is likely transaction-related expenses, a variable cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of customer support/operations, training logistics, and administration, both fixed costs.

Here are our funding pathways:

• Generated revenue: We will be generating revenue through the subscription fees received from educators who are learning on our platform, school recruitment services offered to schools, and government and institutional patronage of any of our services.
• Donations and Grants: We will also be receiving donations from individuals and corporates who believe in our cause and will want to invest in teachers' continuous professional development in remote communities.
• Teacher Engagement Consultancy Projects: As we grow to become an authority in the education industry, we look forward to engaging in heavily funded and high-impact education projects that are centered on improving learning outcomes through empowering educators. We will be using our learning and insights gathered ethically from our data at Schoolinka to engage in this kind of project.

We have generated an all-time revenue of $52,500 ever since we started and we have secured funding from the following sources to develop and implement our pilot:

• Kingdom of Netherlands - 5,000 Euros
• Future Fund For Education - $50,000
• UNLEASH Plus - $30,000 Amazon credits.