Nyansapo AI

Nyansapo AI improves literacy and numeracy in marginalized communities through AI-based assessments, grouping, and activities.

The specific problem that Nyansapo AI is trying to solve is the lack of access to quality education, specifically in terms of literacy and numeracy skills, for children in marginalized communities, such as informal settlements in Kenya and other parts of Africa. This is a significant problem, with UNESCO estimating that 130 million children worldwide do not have basic literacy and numeracy skills despite having attended school for four years. In Kenya, a study conducted by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in informal settlements in Kisumu showed that learners in these communities score lowly in comprehension and writing. Factors contributing to this problem include poverty and discrimination, which can limit access to basic services such as health and education. The consequences of this problem are significant, as children who miss out on learning basic literacy and numeracy skills have greatly reduced chances for success later in life. They are also more likely to live in poverty and will find it difficult to find good-paying jobs. Lack of quality education also affects the economic development and social stability of countries.

Nyansapo AI aims to address this issue by providing a digital solution that uses AI to conduct intelligent student assessments, dynamic grouping, and targeted activities to improve literacy and numeracy skills. This is expected to improve the literacy level of students in informal settlements and reach more students than traditional methodologies.

Nyansapo AI is a digital tool that uses AI to assess student literacy levels, group students into appropriate learning levels, and provide targeted activities to improve their literacy skills. The tool includes an android app for students and teachers to take assessments, track attendance and create session plans, and a dashboard for program managers to track camp progress and analyze data. The assessments use voice analysis through Microsoft Azure to convert speech to text and determine reading ability. By digitizing the traditional paper-based assessment and grouping process, Nyansapo AI aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of literacy programs for primary school students in Africa and globally.

Our solution, Nyansapo AI, serves primary school students in Africa who are facing difficulties in adapting to traditional teaching methods, particularly those in informal settlements and marginalized communities. These students often lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, which negatively impacts their chances for success later in life. Our tool uses AI to conduct intelligent student assessments, dynamic grouping, and targeted activities to improve literacy and numeracy competencies. By providing educational NGOs with the tools they need to make their programs more effective and efficient, Nyansapo AI helps reach these students and improve their access to quality education.

Our team includes a communication consultant and a social media manager who have experience working with children and teenagers in educational programs, and an android developer who has experience in designing and implementing mobile applications. Additionally, our team includes a web developer who has experience in designing and implementing educational platforms. Overall, our team is highly motivated and dedicated to addressing the challenges facing education in rural areas, and we have the skills and experience necessary to successfully deliver our solution and improve literacy among primary school children.

Our team at Nyansapo AI has taken several steps to understand the needs of the population we want to serve. First and foremost, we have done extensive research with potential users in the form of surveys and interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face in terms of literacy and numeracy competencies.

Additionally, we have volunteered and worked with existing organizations that focus on improving literacy and numeracy skills among primary school children in Africa. This has allowed us to gain valuable insight into the current methods and strategies being used, as well as identify gaps and areas for improvement.

Furthermore, we have engaged potential users in the design and development of our solution by incorporating feedback and input from teachers, parents, and children at every stage of the process. This has allowed us to ensure that our solution addresses the specific needs and challenges faced by our target population.

Overall, we believe that our team’s life, volunteer, and work experiences, along with our research and engagement with potential users, have helped us to gain a thorough understanding of the needs and challenges faced by the population we want to serve, and position us to deliver a solution that addresses these needs effectively.

Nyansapo AI is an innovative solution to the problem of poor literacy and numeracy skills in children in rural areas. Our solution is unique in that it uses artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to assess the literacy levels of children on a mobile phone. This eliminates the need for expensive and inefficient paper-based assessments and allows for real-time data collection and analysis.

Additionally, our solution includes dynamic grouping, which allows students to be reassessed and regrouped as they improve their reading skills. This approach allows for more targeted and effective teaching and ensures that each child is receiving instruction at their appropriate level.
We expect that our solution will be catalytic in several ways. Firstly, it has the potential to significantly reduce the costs associated with external education programs, making them more financially accessible to NGOs and schools in rural areas. Additionally, the use of technology in this way can help to bridge the digital divide, which often exacerbates educational disparities in rural areas.
Furthermore, our solution can help to improve the efficiency of existing programs by providing real-time data analysis, which allows NGOs to quickly identify areas where they need to improve their programs. This can lead to more effective use of resources and ultimately help more children to improve their literacy and numeracy skills.

Our impact goal for the next year is to improve the literacy levels of at least 5,000 primary school children in rural areas of Kenya through the use of our digital educational tool, Nyansapo AI. To achieve this goal, we plan to expand our current program to reach more schools in these areas and increase our outreach efforts to involve more community members and organizations in our initiative. We will also work on continually improving and updating our tool to ensure it is providing the most effective support for children's learning. Additionally, we will conduct ongoing evaluations and gather feedback from both children and teachers to measure the impact of our program and make any necessary adjustments. Overall, our focus is on building a sustainable and scalable solution that can continue to improve literacy levels for children in need.

The core technology that powers our solution is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Our solution, Nyansapo, uses speech recognition and NLP to assess the literacy levels of children in Kenya on a mobile phone. This technology allows us to provide targeted activities and feedback to teachers in educational programs, helping to increase literacy among primary school children. Additionally, our solution uses digital educational tools to provide essential data collection services to NGOs running these programs, reducing expenses and inefficiencies associated with current external education programs. The use of AI and NLP in our solution allows us to efficiently and effectively assess the literacy levels of children and provide personalized support to improve their reading and writing skills.

Currently, Nyansapo AI is serving 150 children in the Voo community in Kenya through learning camps. In the next year, we plan to expand our reach and serve an additional 500 children in the surrounding communities in Kitui County, Kenya. This expansion will be achieved through partnerships with local NGOs and schools, as well as through community outreach efforts. Our goal is to provide digital educational tools that can increase literacy among primary school children and provide essential data collection services to NGOs running these programs.

Financial challenges - Our target market which is Non-Governmental Organizations and schools are affected by limited markets limiting their ability to implement technology. This has made the team research alternative monetization efforts. 

Market barriers - working closely with schools nd some NGOs have shown resistance to change and a stronger preference for the use of pen and paper in interventions. To reduce this challenge, we have been working on demonstrating our real value through conducting camps to have significant data on the usability of the app and also improve all the features which are needed by the program managers

Our value proposition is that literacy and numeracy camps will be run more efficiently, with the provision of real-time data and reduction errors where benefits for NGO program managers will be easier supervision of multiple interventions with accurate data points and for teachers, reduction of time used in assessment and their grading to place children in the learning levels; increasing the time spent actually improving the literacy and numeracy competencies of children.  The potential customer is the Non-Governmental Organizations as they have the infrastructure including teachers, the reach of schools, and other requirements needed to successfully conduct literacy and numeracy interventions. Customer relations will be maintained through a Chatbot to answer questions from customers, participating in existing teacher training activities to reach more teachers involved, and consistent communications after purchasing, Key activities include managing and acquiring new uses, creating and managing information technology infrastructure and app and dashboard management. Costs include partnership management, business operations, management of IT, and data storage. Revenue streams include grants, sponsorship, recruiting, and institutional and subscription fees from NGOs. 

Planning - Nyansapo AI has invested time in understanding the intricacies of developing an Ed Tech start-up in a developing country. Through gradual development of a program strategy that has key components such as a benefits realization plan and resourcing approach is helping us frame the needs of the organization including supply chain management, and allocation of resources to ensure that the business change will create benefits for us and the beneficiaries. This has made us adopt strategies such as product sourcing we are looking at using models which are open source to limit our expenditure on the management of our tools. To also manage the capacities of the young and dynamic team, we have been using remote and hybrid work options. We are also working on spearheading partnerships with Non Governmental organizations and increasing the number of children reached while at the same time reducing our overhead costs.