LEARNING WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

A survey conducted by UNICEF dubbed PRIMARY AND SECONDARY IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CHILDREN IN GHANA disclosed that the pandemic’s impacts on children’s access and quality of education are most severely felt through the tracking closure of schools without adequate alternative education services accessible by all children, nation-wide. Already prior to the pandemic, 16.9% of children aged 5-11 years, 50.9% of children aged 12-14 years, and 83.3% of children aged 15-17 years were either not attending school, two or more years behind in school, or have not achieved the correct level of schooling for their grade. 

Urban rural disparities are significant, with children faring far worse in rural areas, as well as in the Northern and Upper West regions.

Although distance learning programmes was implemented nationwide these services were not equitably accessed, such as by children without access to televisions, mobile devices, and internet (14-17% of school-age children) and service stations, such as postal offices for receiving remote learning materials.

The RECOVR rapid response panel survey, carried out in May 2020, further found that:

• Only 60% of all children are spending time on education since school closures were enforced.

• Children spent an average of only 5.9 hours per week on education, for which the main reason is listed as

lack of supervision from adults in the household, lack of support from teachers and schools, and lack of

motivation.

• Only 32% of households with a child in school have received communications from the child’s school.

• Around 60% of respondents reported that children resorted to their own schoolbooks, as opposed to other

educational materials, including internet content and Ghana Learning TV (less than 20%), to spend time on  

education at home.

There are over 4 million school going children between the ages of 5 to 18 years who did not return to school when school resumed fully due to teenage pregnancy, rural urban migration, juvenile delinquencies, lack of apetite for schooling, poverty etc. Those who went back to as I speak are finding it difficult to study due to lack of teaching and learning materials. One sad issue we are also experiencing in Ghana is the implementation of a new curriculum without textbooks making the situation worse in both urban and rural schools.

Solution

Learning Without Boundaries with the ADESUA Edtech PLug helps teacher's and learners to bridge the learning gap created by the closing down of schools during the Covid 19 Pandemic. The ADESUA PLUG together with Chrome Books and Chrome Tablets will solve specific teaching and learning challenges.

1. Reading and Comprehension.

The ADESUA Plug will have in it a collection of E textbooks from both local and international authors to aid reading and comprehension and also introduce them to Electronic Reading.

2. The use of Chrome books and tablets with ADESUA will also introduce these students to the use of technology in learning different subjects within the curriculum (Blended Learning).

3. ADESUA plug will also have digital textbooks on the new curriculum and other international textbooks to help them read wide and also address unavailability of textbook challenge.

4. There will also be creative programs such as coding programs like scratch, java script, snap, Turtle Academy and more to ignite and unleash their creative abilities. There will also be programs like pant application.

5. ADESUA also have Wikipaedia, , , PHET Interactive Simulations, CK -!12 etc for research and further reading. This will make learning exciting.

The above interventions will address the following challenges

1. teaching and learning challenges caused by the school close down during the Covid 19 pandemic.

2. make students who have lost interest in schooling go back to school,

3. introduce them to use of technology in teaching and learning

4. Reading and Writing

5. Reduction and eradication of child labour

6. Reduction and eradication of juvenile delinquencies

7. Reduction and eradication of teenage pregnancy etc.

We want to impact 32,000 rural students in all the 16 regions in Ghana, 2000 rural students in each region affected by the school close down during the Covid 19 pandemic.

These are young rural students between the 5 to 18 years, most of which has didn't return to school when it was finally opened whilst some other's has fallen pray to juvenile delinquencies. Already the schools in the rural area's are under resourced before covid struck making teaching and learning difficult and sometimes impossible.

Learning Without Boundaries will use the ADESUA Plug along side the Chrome Books and Tablets to impact 5 schools in each region with total population of 2000 students and also make teaching and learning interesting, easy and accessible by all.

Prior to the trial of this project, we had a community engagement with the leaders of the communities selected including school heads to make them understand the project and also welcomed their inputs into making a successful implementation of the intervention.

Our goal is impact is to impact 32000 rural students in all the 16 regions in Ghana, impacting 2000 rural students in each region. Taking two regions at a time, that is impacting 4000 rural students in 10 selected school. To successfully impact each region we need to raise $200,000 for two region (4000 students and 10 schools)

Our solution is very innovative because we are using technology in teaching and learning, it will also promote team work, unleash individual creativity and self confidence.

In the next year we hope to impact four regions, that is 8000 rural students in 20 selected rural schools by implementing Learning Without Boundaries by installing the 20 ADESUA plugs and 800 Chrome Books and Tablets.

In the next 5 year we hope to impact fall the 16 regions, that is 32000 rural students in 80 selected rural schools by implementing Learning Without Boundaries by installing the 80 ADESUA plugs and 3200 Chrome Books and Tablets.

To measure the progress of our impact. We have trained field officers who visit the communities and access impact progress and report finding for analysis and action.

Our project when implemented will immediately make teaching and learning easy and fun by the introduction of the ADESUA Plug and Chrome books and Tablets,  it will also attract students who left school to come back to school to be part of the new teaching and learning experience introduced. 

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, SMS technology, Mobile Apps and Software.

I have a seven member dedicated team made up of 4 males and 3 females. Each member overseers to a specific responsibility. We encourage input from every team member before final decisions are taken. In my team all that matters is quality input during discussions and decision making.We are not concern about your race, religion, sexual preference etc. We seriously respect the rights.

The ADESUA Plug is an EdTech device that makes teaching and learning easy and accessible for school in both urban and rural areas.The project targets first cycle schools (Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High School). There are over 30000 private and public first cycle (Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High School) in Ghana. The Plug will be sold to schools in the urban areas through a credit system from our partner financial institution. Part of the profit will be used to impact some of the schools in the rural areas.

Our key customers are all first cycle schools in the urban and rural areas.

Our key products are 

1. ADESUA PLUG

2. Chrome Books

3. Chrome Tablet

Our customers need our product to enable them bridge the learning deficit created during the school shut down during the covid 19 pandemic

We will fund our projects through the following avenues

1. Profit from internally generated funds through our services such as Business Development Advisory, Multimedia Services and Skills training.

2. Fundraising/Donations

3. Grants

4. Raising Investment Capital

We are involved in many impact projects and have received funding from different organizations such Mastercard Foundation on the Young Africa Works Project, Global fund through The Christian Health Association of Ghana, The German Corporation (BMZ) through Plan Ghana and YOTA. We also generate revenue from our in house services such as Business Development Advisory, Multimedia services and Skills training..